By now we should all know how important an email list is. Despite all the new fangled ways to communicate and keep in touch, the simple, mild-mannered email still continues to dominate the field. It's stickier than social media and more precise than a blog post.

As an advisor, email is one of the best ways to engage prospective clients, build their trust, and turn them into current clients to stay in contact with.

And a robust email list makes this worth the effort. So how do you build one?

Over at his site, Robbie Richards polled over 60 online marketing experts to see which tools they use to grow their email lists, and then compiled the responses so we could all benefit from his legwork. Thanks, Robbie!

I'll share with you the top three choices amongst the experts, but I encourage you to check out the full list and read any associated explanations.

But before we go on, there is one caveat. The list works on the assumption that you have a website, which should tell you something - namely that a website is now a given. So if you don't have one, come get one. In fact, a great website is probably the number one tool to procure an email list.

Now to the list. The top email acquiring tools are as follows:

1. LeadPages
2. MailChimp
3. SumoMe

This Top 3 couldn't have worked out better.  These absolutely are fantastic tools, but at the heart of it, each fills a particular need and together they work seamlessly to get the job done. Here's what I mean:

LeadPages

With LeadPages you can create attractive, actionable landing pages with little mastery or time required. Having a fantastic landing page is essential when trying to pry an email from the fingertips of a web visitor.

Links, buttons, or advertising can't just bring people back to a main page where they'll flounder around in a sea of confusion trying to find what they clicked for. If people are clicking for something in particular, you have to take them directly to it, and then not provide too many distractions from getting what you want in exchange for what they want. ie. Their email for your ebook.

SumoMe

So you've curated your landing pages and got popup windows poised for deployment when someone's about to navigate away from your page (how dare they!), but how well are they working?

With SumoMe, you can find out how well your pages are converting. And for free! From an analytics tool to see how the content on your pages is being read to a heat mapping app that shows where the most clicks on your page are occurring, SumoMe's got you covered. The more information you have on how visitors are interacting with your page, the better you can tailor it to your and their needs.

MailChimp

Now that you're raking in emails, you have to be able to manage them properly. With MailChimp, you can create, send, and track emails to any of your subscriber lists, and even learn more about your readers by using their reporting tools.

An exhaustive email list is no good to you if you can't nurture it properly. An email is more than just an address, it's a person that you're trying to connect with.

While these are the top tools as voted by the experts, there are others out there that can accomplish these same important steps - spend some time researching which tools will best fit your firm's needs.