Three out of every four businesses that use email marketing say it offers either a “good” or “excellent” return on investment. For the rest, they might be doing something wrong, so it wouldn’t hurt to bring in a third-party marketing professional to help. When doing so, however, it doesn’t mean you can’t continue to help grow your email list. In fact, doing this will make the marketer’s endeavors even more fruitful.

1. Offer Something in Return

There’s no doubt that every company, band, actor or anyone else with a brand has devoted fans who would sign up for emails “just because.” In most instances, however, consumers will want some form of incentive to hand over their information. This could be anything from “One Free Entrée on Your Birthday!” to “Get Notified First When We Have Secret Sales.” As long as people feel they’re getting something out of it, they’re likely to sign up for your emails.

2. Create Useful Gateway Content

Gateway content is a video, white paper, or other form of content that consumers typically must sign up for to receive in their email. This type of content doesn’t work well in every industry, but for others, it’s a powerful marketing tool. It’s important to remember, though, that the content must be very useful. If consumers or other businesses can find the information free online – without signing up for anything – then it’s not a good idea to use a content gateway.

3. Run an Online Contest

Incentivizing an email signup doesn’t necessarily mean giving everyone something for free. Instead, many companies hold periodic online contests where the prizes are so impressive that people more than willingly give up their email information. While there may be an initial cost to such strategies, the return on investment thanks to new signups is typically worth it.

Unlike other aging technologies, email is still going strong, and it’s likely to continue that way well into the future. This is why budding entrepreneurs should never overlook their email marketing, and if they can keep their list growing, they’ll keep seeing success over the years.