Successful online and Offline marketers have found a way to quickly build and monetize on their email lists. Follow up email lists are a critical tool for any marketer. Lists of 10, 100, 10,000 or 100,000 people strong do not matter. Focusing only on the size of the list does not produce results; you must learn and understand the strategies and programs it takes to build a list. We begin with strong and focused lead generation; targeted niches, targeted opt-in boxes and value driven follow up copy for subscribers. These articles will summarize four email marketing list building strategies and show you how to build a productive list.

Step one is targeted market or niche objectives. Business success comes from focused attention to a specific market’s needs. What are you trying to accomplish? What need do you fill? What challenge can you fix? Look at the overall picture of your business and then plan out effective marketing programs, timelines and milestones to reach predetermined goals. Create a series of messages to lead your target audience to your offer page. We accomplish this with traffic methods.

Step two is niche targeted and focused traffic generation. Traffic or people reading your content are the base elements in the Internet marketing world. That’s seems simple. What is not obvious is what needs to be done to attract this traffic.

For example, there are search page results, Adwords, affiliate incentives, and many Offline ways of generating online traffic. Some marketers spend $15,000/month in Google Adwords, some attract with high percentage affiliate commissions and some hire teams to create and post content. If you are an Internet marketing novice, the vast array of differing methods available can be overwhelming. So start with one and get good at it. In the end, traffic and email marketing depends on how much available time you have, how big a budget you have and how effective a manager you are.

Step three is well placed lead captures or „opt-in“ forms. Once we create a steady stream of readers, our opt-in box gives people the ability to ask for more information. To increase our opt-in numbers we use incentives to coax prospective clients to leave a name and email address. The more value you give away the high the opt-in.

Step four is to automatically follow up with subscribers. Again value is the most important feature. After subscribing to your list, people are going to expect valuable information, feel good entertainment or usable processes and learn about what you are doing and how they can benefit. When your subscribers perceived benefit his greater than your perceived monetary value then they will be willing to purchase whatever product or service you have available for sale.

All marketers differ in the number of offers to email to a list in a given week. Assertive marketers or guru’s send several times a day. The drawback is that this practice causes rapid opt-out or churn. Consistent and valuable information is the solution. Emailing valuable information two or three times a week cuts down on opt-out and increases reader retention. Longer periods tend to decrease interest and your list will get shrink.

These four steps are the basis of a profitable email marketing plan and key to building a valuable list. Follow up lists are basic building blocks for any Online or Offline business. This is where the gold is. Each and every subscriber is a potential sale so treat them as if they were live customers and you would speak to them in person.