List Building

Don’t misunderstand the term list building.  Some folks are pretty quick to take people up on offers that include the purchasing of lists. Although I strongly recommend you never get involved with the purchase of lists it is done all the time. The best kind of list for you to work with is your own list of people that know you and understand what you offer. Just say no to the snake oil sales people that offer you 5000+ e-mail addresses of prospects that will take you up on your offer.

Any savvy businessperson understands that people will purchase when they are ready to and have developed enough trust. Gather your own list of people that have some level of trust with your company. You can segment that information into groups so that your marketing message can be more targeted. But please, cultivate your own contacts that believe in you.

How to Build your List

Once again you don’t need to look much further than your own web pages. All you’re gonna need is a quick contact form that collects a small bit of information from people. These people want to learn more about your ideas and products. It usually includes three main questions; e-mail address, full name, and phone number. In my experience of collecting leads on the Internet I can tell you, the fewer questions you ask a first time prospect the more likely you are to make contact. Once you have had the initial conversation with your prospect they will more than likely become a customer and delighted to be on your mailing list. If your prospect did not take you up on the offer initially you can be pretty sure they will eventually through a cleverly crafted drip marketing campaign.

To start building your own business contact list you can use a third party companies to manage your marketing. A few of the more dominant players in the market include aWeber.com, verticalresponse.com and constantcontact.com. Do not wait another minute to get yourself into the world of permission e-mail marketing.

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