In the fast changing online world, the one internet marketing tactic that will always deliver good performance is email marketing. Research has shown that, online, you need to make seven points of contact with your prospect before they will buy something from you. By building an opt in list, and publishing an online newsletter you can get to that seventh point of contact.

Take a look at our introduction to list building video here:

Take a look at some of the most successful online businesses – from finance companies offering trading accounts to individual entrepreneurs selling ebooks, software and memberships and you will see that ALL of them use email marketing. In fact, for many, email marketing and their opt in lists account for 90% of their business income. This is why it is so important to build an opt in list and develop a solid relationship with your subscribers through a newsletter.

Here’ we’ll look at all things list building – from the very basic, to the advanced – so that whatever your stage and business niche, you will be able to build a large and targeted opt in list that listens to you and takes action on your recommendations.
First, here’s why email marketing is such a powerful tool for any business:

- E-mail marketing is one of the fastest ways to leverage on the Internet. Because all you do is compose an E-mail, customize it to suit the reader (their first name or last name), and click the broadcast button to reach thousands of people instantly!

- E-mail marketing is highly scalable. Unlike an ‘offline’ business where the more customers you have, the busier you are, in E-mail marketing, it is much easier because regardless of the size of your mailing list, whether it is 100 or 10,000, all you need to do is click broadcast and everyone on the list gets notified – all for the same effort!

- E-mail marketing is highly targeted. One of the reasons why E-mail marketing is highly effective at getting sales is because the recipient of the E-mail gets a kind of ‘in your face’ promotion. You are marketing directly to the customer through their PERSONAL mailbox. Not only will you grab their attention firmly, they will tend to respond with the right buyers mindset because they are marketed to directly (unlike other advertising where the buyer might not be in the frame of mind to buy things).

- E-mail marketing is personal. Autoresponders allow you to customize the E-mail in such a way that it allows you to connect with the subscriber individually. The more personalized your E-mail, the better the result (treat it as though you are writing to your best friend).

- You can automate many tasks with your autoresponder. For every new opt-in subscriber, you can time your E-mails for you build a relationship with every new opt-in subscriber – what to send to them, when to send it to them and the frequency between each E-mail.

E-mail marketing acts as a good pre-sell. You might not be able to cram a sales letter into your E-mail, but at least you can pre-sell your subscriber and lead them to your blog, sales letter or website to check out what you have to offer and set them in the right frame of mind before they evaluate what you have to offer.

If you’re new at opt in list building, then there are some simple steps that you can take in order to get started right away. Here are a few things that you’ll need (and we will look at all of these in more detail here):

- You will need a way of capturing the email address of your site visitors. Usually, this is done by using an autoresponder service or script. It’s best to use a quality autoresponder, because your list is your biggest business asset, so you don’t want to risk losing it.

- You’ll need to be aware of the Can-Spam Act relating to email marketing and list building. It’s important to understand the difference between legitimate opt in list building where your prospect wants to hear from you, and SPAM where they don’t. Never, ever spam!

- You’ll need to be aware of the many effective ways of generating opt in subscribers to your opt in list. There are some highly effective tactics that we’ll discuss later that can help build you a large opt in list at very low cost (or even free).

- If you’re reading this as someone looking to build your own small internet business from home, then you’ll need to learn how to find a topic for your newsletter and business.

- An understanding on how to write a powerful, response generating newsletter is also required – building an opt in list is the first part of a successful email marketing campaign. The next part is to build a solid relationship with them.
Building a powerful opt in list is a long term commitment, but one that is worth while. Here, you’ll have all the free resources, video tutorials and training that you’ll ever need to start building a list fast!