Ten Steps To Build A Mailing List

If you have an online business you need a business email marketing list. Your email list is essential for converting prospects into paying customers. But it needs to be done right to be effective for your business.

It is possible to purchase large email lists from online companies. This may seem like an easy answer and a good idea but further thought reveals this approach to be an illusion.

Purchased email lists post three main problems. Much of the information may be stale and out of date so that in a list of 5,000 emails only 3,000 may be current. Because of this the value is not always what it appears to be.

Have you ever received an email from an unknown source? If you have (and most people with an email account will have experienced this at least once) the most likely thing you have done is hit the delete key without even opening the email, especially if it looks like it's promoting or selling something. This is what will happen to a large portion of the messages you send to a purchased list.

For those who do open and read your email many will complain they have been spammed. Your inbox will be full of complaints. This is because these readers know they did not explicitly sign up to receive emails from you or your company. They have probably never heard of you before. This is going to give your business a bad name before you've even started.

The answer to avoiding these problems is to build your own highly targeted email list. You build this opt list of people who explicitly opt in to receive emails from you.

When building your business email marketing list here are 10 simple tips to follow.

1. Use a free giveaway.

Write a short ebook, create a simple downloadable piece of software or an informative video. It doesn't have to be large but it does have to provide some real value. Most importantly your free giveaway needs to be something that will really appeal to your target market. In this way you begin your email list building with only highly targeted prospects. Check out this example out from a forex niche. In this example the giveaway is perfectly tailored to readers of a forex blog where the offer is prominently displayed. It has proved to be very popular and hugely successful in building a very highly targeted email list.

2. Offer value.

This one seems obvious but you must regularly offer value to your email list subscribers. Send them messages that inform them of something they may not already know. Offer them the occasional sneak preview of a new product or service or an occasional discount.

3. Be honest.

If you state you will only email them up to four times a month stick to it. If you state you will only email them occasionally with special offers don't start sending them a newsletter. Make sure that your ongoing use of their email addresses is in line with the original reason you got them to sign up in the first place.

4. Assure them of their privacy.

State that you will never give or sell their email address to another party (and stick with this promise). Tell them how many emails to expect from you in any one month and stick to this. You want to build a relationship with these readers based upon trust and reliability (yours). Don't blow it!

5. Keep it interesting.

If you have a regular newsletter make it visually appealing and keep the content interesting. If you're just sending the occasional text email work hard to make the content relevant and interesting to your readers.

6. Make your emails newsworthy with polls or questions.

People like to feel involved and love to be asked questions. Make the question funny or interesting and relevant. You can even use the results to write an article.

7. Make it viral.

Put a subscribe link at the bottom of each email or newsletter and ask your readers to pass it onto their friends if they find it interesting. Make sure it is as easy as possible for secondary receivers of your emails to opt in to join the list.

8. Put a subscribe link in a prominent position on your blog or web site.

This can be in addition to the free giveaway you offer to increase your targeted list. Make it easy for people to give you their email directly from your site so that they can subscribe to updates of your blog posts or special offers.

9. Don't use the word 'subscribe' on your opt in form.

This puts people off giving you their email address because the word subscribe is used in conjunction with paid subscriptions. You want them to know you will not be charging them anything. Re-word it to indicate that the form is where they give their email address to receive updates of your regular posts, or further information, or whatever it is you want to send them.

10. Develop a relationship with your email list.

Keep the contact regular but don't inundate them with too much. A general rule would be to not send more than one email per week, and at least one per month.

Once you have your list going, you can use this to increase your sales. But that's another story!

Email list building may seem like a lot of hard work in the beginning when you set it up but it is essential for online business success. It is not something you can afford to avoid or ignore and when it is done right it can be a great tool to increase sales. Good luck!