How to Build an Email Marketing List the Easy Way

If you've been doing business on the Internet for awhile, you've probably heard the saying "the money is in the list" - meaning your customer and prospect e-mail list. But how do you go about building a marketing list, and how do you make sure that your clients will be open to receiving it (and not accuse you of spam?).

Here's an easy and fast way to set up your own email list and make sure it's something that your customers and visitors will look forward to getting in their inbox.

1. Selecting a Reliable E-Mail List Service - Preferably one which allows you to create follow-up emails in addition to your first one. These are called follow-up autoresponders and with them, you can create e-mails to be sent out in a sequence - automatically.

For example, you can write an e-mail to go out on day 1, followed by a second e-mail on day 3, then a third on day 5. This is especially good for educating your customers about your product and its benefits before they make a purchase.

One highly rated service which can help you create such a mailing list is aWeber.com - they have a 30 day free trial which you can use to get a feel for all the features and set up your own test list if you'd like. You can learn more at http://freeinfo.aweber.com

2. Have Something to Say - Not Sell - People will resent being pitched to or sold to all the time. Instead, ask for their opinion. You can create a free survey using a service like surveymonkey.com and link to it when you create an e-mail to send to your list.

Tip: Your prospects and customers will be more likely to give you their opinion if you give them something in return - such as a free sample or a coupon. Try it and see how many new marketing insights you get from your customers!

3. Follow Up Consistently - If you establish a regular routine with your list, such as sending out a message every Wednesday, they will come to expect it - and if the content is interesting, they'll look forward to it. You can easily set up these weekly intervals using aWeber or another e-mail list service.

This kind of future mailing allows you to write e-mails weeks in advance of actually sending them - freeing up your time considerably while making sure your list of prospects and clients stays "in the loop" about your products and services.

4. Let them go if they want to - Not everyone is going to love receiving your newsletter or e-mail course. They may be too busy to read it or any number of other reasons. Don't take their unsubscriptions personally. And make it easy for them to choose not to receive your messages if they don't want to. This is most commonly done via an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each message which your email list service will take care of for you.

To help ensure that your message isn't treated as spam or junk e-mail, you should include your contact information - including your business address and a phone number where you can be reached, at the bottom of each message. In the U.S., this is necessary to make your message compliant with e-mail sending rules and regulations.

When customers or prospects unsubscribe, you can optionally have your e-mail list service include a brief survey that lets them tell you why they're leaving. Most people won't fill this out, but for those that do, you may learn things about your list that you never considered - such as changing the frequency of messages you send, or making the content of the message more relevant to their needs.

Overall, these tips should help you get started with creating your own active mailing list that you can turn to again and again to build your business even stronger. Good luck!

Sherice Jacob holds an M.A. in Media Studies and has played an integral role in creating several successful web businesses - for herself and others. She currently manages a full service web design and internet marketing firm at http://www.iElectrify.com