Today, relationship marketing is the trend and list building is the key.



?The money is in the list!? is the rallying cry heard everywhere from leading corporations to home-based business ventures. There's good reason for it. Marketing to your own in-house list is easier, more cost-effective and more productive than cold marketing to the masses.

List building just makes sense ? and dollars, too! Whether you work at home or in an office building, there is no excuse for not building a list. Internet technology makes it easy, economical and exceptionally profitable to do so.

List building is simply collecting email addresses of people who are interested in what you have to offer and who agree to subscribe to a no-cost newsletter or service that you email to them at regular intervals. The intervals can be daily, weekly, monthly ? whatever you choose.

What are the key benefits of this vital marketing practice?

- Targeted customers: you already know your list will be responsive to other offers you send to them from time to time - the subscribers on your list are pre-qualified.

- No fear of ?spam? blocking.

- Immediate delivery of your new offers to a large (and growing) list of people without delay. No waiting for ads to be published.

- Your own instant cash machine! Once your list is large enough, by the law of percentages, every broadcast you send out will produce sales. You are no longer dependent on outside sources for traffic or income.

Let me stress again the value of list building for every person who is in any way involved in marketing, from work at home enthusiasts to big business entrepreneurs and everyone else anywhere in between.

The Sign-Up Form

Generally, a sign-up form (web form) is placed on your homepage and/or your most visited pages. The form invites visitors to opt-in (subscribe) by entering and submitting their name and email address. By doing so, they agree to receive the item to which they subscribed as well as additional offers you may send periodically.

Ideally, the opt-in form should be placed near the top of the page where it will be easily noticed.

Placing it on a page with informative articles or helpful tips can also improve the response. A visitor who values that information will more likely subscribe to your list to get more information and updates.

An alternative to the web form is a pop-up form. The advantage is that the pop-up appears over an existing web page. It can be used then clicked away. You don't have to change the formatting of the page.

More information about web forms may be available from your domain hosting service or by doing a search on the Internet. Some affiliate marketing companies provide such forms to members in their back office tools and resources section.

Incentives To Opt-In

There are a number of ways to entice visitors to opt-in to your list. You can offer an informative newsletter, a free eBook, software or a no-cost email course focusing on your particular niche.

Whatever you offer, it is best if it relates to your website or your marketing focus. After all, you want to be perceived as the expert in the field.

If you do not have the experience or the time to create articles and information products, you can find pre-written resources at private label content sites. One dependable provider that I recommend is InfoGoRound.com. For others, you can do an Internet search.

Autoresponder Helps Manage List, Save Time

You can have your web form automatically send each new subscriber's information to an autoresponder service where you can pre-load a series of newsletters or messages. Once entered into the system, your subscriber automatically receives mailings at prescribed intervals.

I use a double opt-in process. That means that after subscribers submit the web form, the autoresponder sends an email that requires them to confirm their subscription request.

A double opt-in list can take longer to build, but it gives you a more responsive list and prevents pranksters from adding unsuspecting subscribers.

The autorsesponder service I use is GetResponse.com. For other autoresponder services, you can do an Internet search.

Honor Your Relationships

Today's trend is towards relationship marketing. The most important part of list building is to honor the trust your subscribers have in you. Take care to endorse and recommend only quality products and services. Do not flood your subscribers with ?special offers? - never risk drawing a spamming reputation.

If your aim is to make money online, list building is vitally important to your success. It does take time and effort to get it started, but the reward of having your own targeted and responsive list is well worth it in the end.