Building an opt-in email list is critical for the success of any email marketing venture. Not only is it potentially illegal and/or unethical to try to sell products and services to a list that didn't give you permission to do so, but it will produce exceptionally poor results.

Internet users are much more savvy, and marketers must understand that they need to provide real value in the context of a real relationship in order to be successful in an email marketing campaign. There is only one way to do this effectively, and that is to build your own optin email list.

Also called a house list or in-house marketing list, building an opt-in email list takes time, creativity, and usually money, but is worth the investment if your product or service is really worth buying.

Techniques for building an opt-in email list

There are a number of time-testing methods for building your own opt-in marketing list. They can often be used in combination:

• Free reports
• Co-registration
• PPC Advertising
• E-zine advertising
• Article directories

Free reports

One highly effective way to generate opt-ins to your list is to offer a valuable free report or download. As Internet use grows, so do the expectations of users to receive something real and useful in return for the right to contact them via email.

Co-registration

Co-registration is a technique that requires developing a relationship with another opt-in list developer whereby you agree to share opt-ins. The quality of co-regs for sales offers is not as good as dedicated opt-ins to a single list, because your targeted demographic may be slightly different from your partner. There are also some underhanded opt-in list developers out there who use unethical techniques to generate "permission." Mailing to these types of contacts will not produce good results.

PPC Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising is a valuable tool for developing an opt-in list, because you can create opt-in pages appealing to a specific demographic, then advertise inexpensively for keywords to attract them to your page.

E-zine advertising and cross-promotion

You can sometimes work out deals with publishers in similar markets to trade advertising in your newsletters or cross-promote your lists. In order for this to work, you need to have a common demographic you are targeting, and the terms are up to you to negotiate.

Article directories

The Internet is a content-based medium, which means that writing matters. Producing quality content is not only important for your newsletter itself, but helpful for submission to article directories as well. As readers who are interested in your article find it via search engines (and inclusion of your work in other publishers' newsletters), they can click through from your signature to your website where you can get opt-ins to your list.

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