Building Your e-Mail List

A well-maintained, growing e-mail list can be a simple way to generate enormous amounts of revenue for your company. Building that list can be difficult, but here are some tips:

• There are various social networking sites available to you to help you promote your business and your brand. However, don’t think you can just spam those sites to build your e-mail list. You’ll actually have to contribute to the community and the discussion. It will take some time, but you’ll build yourself up as a valuable resource and people will appreciate that.
• Network with others in the industry to promote your mailing list. You may be able to take out an ad in their newsletter, convince them to add a link to your newsletter on their website if you agree to do the same, or partner with some of them to help promote each other. This is a great way to find people who have already shown at least some interested in your industry and what your business does.
• Be sure to place the sign-up for your e-mail list in a prominent place on your website, and be sure to include at least one such link on every page. (Putting it in the sidebar, header, or footer is the simplest option.) You should also include the option for them to automatically sign up whenever they buy one of your products. Make it easy for them to subscribe.
• When people sign up for your list, they should know what to expect, and they should get what they expect. Let them know how often you’ll be contacting them and what you’ll be sending them. If you start abusing this channel, they will be quick to unsubscribe.
• With every e-mail you send out, let your readers know that they’re welcome to pass the content along to other and to encourage their friends to sign up as well. If you’re providing them with good content they’ll already want to share, it will be easily to capitalize on that.

Tags: e-mail, list, networking