How do I get new subscribers to join my email list?

It’s a question we hear often ’round these parts, particularly from folks who are just getting started with their email marketing efforts. And there are some pretty standard answers – add a signup form to your website, have your salespeople ask for email addresses on the phone, or add a fishbowl at the retail counter for business cards. And of course, in our best practices talks and Ask Emmas, we always encourage folks to think about what’s unique at their organizations and consider some creative options ways for asking people to join their lists.

Today, I witnessed one such creative option.

I was at a Nashville-area restaurant for lunch (the stylish Mambu, for you local types), and when I went to freshen up in the ladies room, this is what I saw in the bathroom. Specifically, ahem, in the bathroom *stall.*

It’s funny, a) because bathrooms make things funnier and b) because it works for the same reason those other more traditional, “sanitary” methods do – you ask people when they’re already at your store or your site, when they’re likely to say yes, and where their choices are limited to do anything else *but* subscribe. Props to Mambu for capitalizing on the ultimate captive audience.

What creative ways do you ask people to join your list?