Bob  submitted a great question to me last week. He asked,

Is there a good scanner to scan buscards that will pick up the Email address and,

Is there a source of local email address that I can buy like zip code 97070?

Any other ways to get email names, in a local area. I am putting out Fish Bowls and free offers to collect, But I don’t want to have to key them in if possible.

First question. Absolutely! I use CardScan Personal Card Scanner. It’s amazingly easy to use and accurate too. My only gripe with it is the software has a pretty large footprint so it does take up some space and resources on your computer but if this saves time it is almost a non-issue. It is a little pricey. However, I’m sure after manually entering stuff for an hour (or more) you’ll be able to justify the expense.

Second question.  Try a service like SalesGenie. I’ve used them once and you can get the contact list immediately. Pretty affordable too.

Third question. First, good idea on those Fish Bowls. I don’t know what your market or product is, but generally, here are some ideas. Please, note that offline is not my strongest suite. These I picked up here and there and thought them to be interesting enough to at least try.

• Door tags – You mentioned a free offer. So maybe invite people to visit the web site (with a email capture of course) to pick up the freebie right away.
• Classifieds – I’d do the same thing send people to a special lead capture landing page.
• Local publications – once again, I don’t know the market you are trying to reach but if there is a local publication or even the local paper whom you can contribute an article/opinion piece to and use a special landing page in your bio.
• Your vehicle
• T-Shirts
• Special giveaway with a local business. For example every business *should* have a mailing list of their own customers. If you can foot the bill for the mailer maybe the would send it to their customers.

Hope that gives you some ideas. If anyone else has more suggestions, feel free to pipe in.