List Building - Email Marketing List

Having an email marketing list can be a huge asset for your internet business that can make you a steady income for a long period of time. A list of loyal and trustful subscribers that you can email to with promotions and offers any time you like, is the most valuable potential income source your business can have. It's like repeating customers coming back to your store again and again.
So building an email marketing list is one of the most profitable things you can do to make your online business less dependent on 'random' visitors to your website, and secure more reliable and steady earnings from loyal customers. Therefore, list building is something that you should start with as soon as you can.

Opt-In Email List

You probably have come across the terms 'opt in email list' or just opt in list, which is about the same as an email list. The term 'opt in' refers to the "opting in" or signing up process when joining a list.
When opting in to an email marketing list, typically a human type his/her name and email address into a form on a web page that is created for this purpose, and click on the 'Submit' button. When the owner of the website receives that person's details, s/he stores it in an autoresponder system, from which s/he can email everybody on the list in one go.

You may also have heard the term double opt in email list. This refers to the double opting in process, which is the most common list building method these days, and which I advice you to use, too.
With the double opt in system, an email is immediately sent to the person who submitted the opt-in form, telling them that a message is received using their email address. To confirm that they wish to be added to the email marketing list, they are asked to click on a confirmation link in that email.
They are also told that they will not be added to the email list if they don't click the confirmation link, and that they will have the option to opt out of the list at any time later by clicking on an 'unsuscribe' link in every mail they receive.

This double opt in method is used to fight spamming. All serious internet marketers use it, and in several countries it's even made mandatory by law.

Autoresponder

Some internet marketers have thousands, even tens of thousands subscribers on their optin email lists. It's impossible to handle those numbers of subscribers manually, so what they have is an autoresponderservice that takes care of everything.

The autoresponder creates the opt-in form that you put on your website (like the one to the right), it handles the double opt-in process automatically, and it sends emails to your list whenever you want.
So why would people opt into your email marketing list?
The reason is obviously to obtain some kind of benefit. It can be to receive newsletters or a monthly ezine from the editor with valuable information on a theme or topic the subscriber is interested in. Another reason is to learn marketing tricks and tactics from internet marketing "gurus" by watching how they do things.

A very common list building strategy is to entice or "bribe" people with something to have them sign up to the list. You put an opt-in form on your web pages and tell people that they will receive a gift or "bonus" if they join your list. The bonus can be a report, an ebook, software, or an e-course for example. It should be something downloadable, as people are more inclined to take action when the reward is immediately available.

Targeted Email Lists

It is possible to buy an email list; there are many folks out there offering lists of 'email leads' ready to put into your autoresponder service. Be careful with such lists; although the seller tells they contain only "fresh" leads, you can't be sure what you get.

One thing is that you can be accused of spam if the 'prospects' have no idea how they ended up on your list. Another even more serious matter is if the list you bought appears not to be targeted to your business. A list of people interested in 'horse breeding' won't be very profitable if your business concept is 'Scandinavian folk music'!

As you understand, it's absolutely crucial to building a targeted email marketing list. It's obvious that only an opt-in list of people interested in what you have to offer, will act upon your promotions and eventually make you money. The "tighter" your list, the better. Therefore, add only people to your list that are genuinely interested in your business!

Below are listed articles on how to build your own email marketing list. Read on to learn techniques and strategies, methods and tricks on list building.