Five Steps to Build Your Email List

• Email Marketing, Marketing
• December 1st

Internet marketing depends on having a quality email list of targeted people who are interested in your product niche. You’ve probably heard the phrase “the money is in the list,” but what exactly does that mean? It typically refers to the size and the quality of your email list. But how do you build a large, qualified list? After all, it doesn’t do much good to have 10,000 email addresses on your list if only 25 of them ever buy anything from you. Here are five of the top techniques for building your list and making sure those prospects are potential buyers.

1. When people do buy from you, make sure you add them to your list. You need permission to add someone to your email list, so all you need to do is add the request right to your payment process. Create a check box that asks the buyer if you can email them occasionally with other products that may be of interest to them. Chances are a buyer will give their permission readily.

2. Have a sign-up form on every page of your website. Make it easy for people to sign up for your email list by posting the sign-up in a prominent position on every page of your site. Offer people something of value in exchange for giving you their email address like a special report, an ebook or another product that provides true value to the subscriber.

3. Participate in a joint-venture giveaway with other Internet marketers in your niche. Joint venture giveaways are a great way to build your list. You offer a free product to giveaway attendees in exchange for their email address. Many times a giveaway that is promoted extensively by big name marketers can result in thousands of email addresses for your list. Of course, a large number of those names may unsubscribe after they receive your free product, but the odds are good you will retain many subscribers as well.

4. Write articles about your products and submit them to article directories like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com. People who are looking for content for their websites or blogs and people who are simply looking for information will read your articles, which will include a link to your website in the resource box. If your sign-up form is listed on every page of your website, you will gain new subscribers.

5. Offer a newsletter on your website. This is a great way to gain names for your email list, especially if your website contains good information. If people who visit your site read intelligent, accurate, useful information on your site and you offer them a free newsletter that promises more of the same, they will be encouraged to sign up for that newsletter. This is a legitimate, ethical way to add them to your email list and then occasionally send them an email offering products for sale.

One of the most important keys to building a high-quality, large email list is to provide value to your subscribers. Don’t email them several times a day or even once a day. Instead, email once or twice a week and always provide valuable content in those emails. Make sure you are not constantly pushing for a sale or your numbers will fall rapidly. Instead, build a relationship with your subscribers so they come to like and trust you before you hit them up for cash. Then, continue to foster the relationship, always giving away plenty of quality content free. That way, when you do request a sale, people are far more likely to reach for their credit card than if you present yourself as a pushy marketer who is constantly trying to make a sale.