One of the primary goals of many websites, and ours too, is to build a quality list of prospective future clients and to continue to stay in the conversation with our current clients.

A very common strategy to build a database of names and email addresses is to include an email marketing opt-in form or subscribe form on every page of a website, and experts will often tell you the upper right-hand corner of a web page is the most effective pace to place it. Now it doesn’t have to be in the exact top right-hand corner, but in that general area is preferred.

To entice website visitors more, many website owners will offer an Irresistible Free Offer such as a special report, free CD, e-book, video, or audio recording. But these offers aren’t really free because visitors are required to give their name and email address to receive the gift.

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Your “list” is your database of people you can contact with your marketing messages and communications. Email marketing is the most common form of permission-based marketing, which means you must have permission to add people to your email marketing list, and permission to email them information. Email addresses should be obtained only by legitimate means like through opt-in and subscribe boxes on your website, or by specific request. This is why online marketing lists are often called opt-in lists.

It is difficult to talk about email marketing and not talk about list building. In fact, many experts make it seem as if building a big list is the only thing Internet entrepreneurs need to worry about. But when it comes to your list, does size really matter?

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 26, 2010 | CONTACT: Jennifer Bourn, Bourn Creative
916-788-1740 | jennifer(at)bourncreative.com

Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative One of Only 12
Women Experts for List Attraction Week, March 8-12, 2010

Sacramento, CA – 2010 is shaping up to be the year for building business, thus increasing the need for low-cost, high-return marketing tactics by entrepreneurs. With the exponential growth of social networking for businesses in 2009, online marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing trends. However, most entrepreneurs don’t know how to get started with the most basic element, their “marketing list”.

Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative is a web designer and online marketing expert who helps her clients leverage the power of the Internet and use it to effectively attract new clients and leads. Bourn was recently selected by the International Association of Women in Business Online (IAWBO) to sit on a panel of 12 experts who will host a teleclass series during “List Attraction Week”, March 8-12, 2010.

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Often I hear stories of my friends, business peers and networking acquaintances sitting in front of their computer with Email Newsletter Writers’ Block. They just can’t seem to think of anything to write, don’t like feeling pressured to write something fabulous, and secretly hate email marketing because they don’t want to be a copywriter.

So, what do they do? They put it off and procrastinate.

Soon, it has been weeks, or sometimes even months and nothing has been sent out to their list. No announcements. No marketing. No helpful tips or information.

Unfortunately, their list of warm leads is growing colder by the minute!

Here is a quick list of email newsletter topics or content ideas that you can use to help put an end to writers’ block:

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Yesterday’s blog post covered email marketing list building tips one through five. Here’s a quick recap of the first five list building tips I covered in yesterday’s post:

1. Add a Sign Up form or Opt-In Box on Every Page of Your Website
2. Advertise in Another Ezine
3. Promote Your Ezine in Your Email Signature
4. Send Out a Press Release
5. Announce Your Ezine to Your Network

Remember, with a personal, relevant, value-added ezine, you can attract new customers and prospects to join your list. And, that’s what it’s all about, building your list and getting contacts into your marketing funnel.

With that in mind, let’s move on to email marketing list building tips six through ten:

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Building a strong, high quality marketing list is crucial for every business owners, especially the business owners who wants to use the Internet to grow and expand their business.

Everyone knows that giving something away for free is one of the best ways to get people to opt-in to your marketing list. Your free offer may be an ebook, a special report, or even an audio recording. In this blog post, I want to share with you ten additional tips for building your marketing list.

TIP 1: Add a Sign Up form or Opt-In Box
on Every Page of Your Website

Adding a subscribe form or opt-in box to every page of your website ensures that no matter what page a visitor may land on first, they will learn about your valuable ezine and your special offer.

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There is a HUGE problem with entrepreneurs and email marketing that absolutely drives me crazy. Any time I bring up this problem every single person agrees with me and some people get very passionate about it. But it still happens.

Frankly, every time email marketing is mentioned at a presentation, seminar, workshop, or in written articles, this problem is addressed. So I know the problem isn’t due to a lack of information or ignorance.

So what is this huge problem? It is people adding other people to their list WITHOUT permission. Um, yeah … that would be called SPAMMING!

I am appalled at how many lists I get added to after attending meetings, networking events, and conferences. The funny thing is that I didn’t opt-in on their website, I didn’t ask to be added to their list, and I didn’t purchase anything!

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You may hear some marketing experts say “It’s all about the size of your list.” But I disagree. While a large list gives you a large pool of people to market your services and products to, it isn’t ONLY about quantity. Yes, at several of the conferences I have attended, experts say that the tipping point for a truly successful email newsletter is 1,000 subscribers. But I am here to tell you that HUGE results can come much smaller lists, if your readers are engaged and you are actively working to build long-lasting relationships with your subscribers.

For example, when my client Melissa first came to me and asked me to help her figure out why she wasn’t getting the sales results she wanted out of her email marketing efforts, she was shocked to hear my recommended course of action – To STOP focusing on list building.

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