List building is the most important aspect of any online business. No matter which business model you follow your top priority should be to build a list of prospects to send information to on a regular basis.
There is a saying going around Internet marketing circles that the money is in the list. This is most definitely a true statement.
By building a list you can keep in contact with your prospects and create a bond between you that will eventually lead to profit.
If cultivated correctly the profits from a well-groomed list will expand over time and can become a long-term income center.
There have been many marketing studies done which show that the average consumer needs to be contacted at least seven times before he or she will make a commitment to buy.
If you, as a business owner, are not giving your prospects an opportunity to leave their name and email address in your autoresponder then you are surely leaving untold profits on the table.
The beautiful thing about list building is that it can be done in any niche.
Whether you are into Internet marketing, gardening, knitting, car stereos, vacations, or whatever else, there is information out there that you can package and make available for your visitors as a freebie to entice them to leave their info and bring them back for more.
The biggest key to profiting from your lists is to do the old soft sell. Do not bombard your list with a torrent of sales pitches or a flood of advertising.
This will lead to massive defections in the ranks in the form of unsubscribers and all the hard work you put into building your list in the first place will be for nothing.
Send a lot of useful information at a reasonable rate for the first two weeks. A good rate of delivery would be every two to three days. This information should be in the form of articles and reviews of pertinent products.
Only after delivering this useful information should you start to send sales pitches to your list. As a general rule of thumb you should only send a sales letter every third mailing.
This way you build trust with your readers, as they are not expecting a sales pitch every time out.
Treat your list members well. Give them free reports once a month or every other week as an enticement to stay on your list.
This will give them a good reason to open your emails when they see them in their inbox because they never know when you may send them another useful piece of information.
By giving them these free reports many will also feel obligated to make a purchase when you do recommend a product or service.
By building lists in every niche you are marketing to you will soon see profitable returns that go way beyond the effort needed to keep your lists active.
