With postal costs being a major deterrent to traditional direct mailing campaigns, email marketing has proved to be a very cost-effective alternative in today's economy. Of course, marketing through emails can be done to a purchased mailing list which gives mass mailing a whole new perspective. However, it is still best to build your own database of email subscribers or users.

Firstly, it negates the cost of buying email lists which are so large that they can hardly ever be verified as being valid or currently active. More importantly, it ensures that you are targeting potential buyers or addressing prospects that are interested in the subject area of your business. Contrarily, writing to purchased email lists is nothing but the electronic form of cold calling and runs a very high risk of being disregarded as spam.

That said, building an email database isn't as simple as putting a "sign up" link on your website. Most users share their email address only after repeated attempts to win over their trust. So start asking for email addresses with every piece of marketing you ever undertake. Others are likely to join or subscribe only when they are incentivized to do so. Therefore it is a good idea to offer something free on signing up, such as an e-newsletter or an e-book. However obvious it may seem, a written assurance via the site's privacy policy that the email database will never be sold to third party sales companies goes a long way in winning over a potential subscriber's trust. Also include an option for users to choose whether they would like additional information or offers from your site.

To drive traffic to your website and thus the sign-up link, you need to employ Pay Per Click (PPC) or free advertising strategies. While Google and Yahoo are the best bets for the former, article writing, blogs and forum participation are a good way to generate free traffic to your site. Another fantastic way to increase awareness about your newsletter or website is to exchange banners or links with an affiliate or co-newsletter provider.

One of the easiest ways to build a database (that most people overlook), is to use your existing customers to find new ones. Always offer a link to your sign up page on all your marketing materials. If your readers like it they might forward it to their friends, possibly resulting in new subscribers. You may also allow others to reprint your content so long as the credit byline is maintained.

Once you have built a substantial database you can market to your customers through the growing internet medium at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing tactics.