Snail Mail is quickly becoming obsolete. Email is cheaper, since you do not need to buy a stamp, and it’s definitely faster. Emails can be sent in seconds, to any location anywhere in the world.
Emails are being used to distribute millions of newsletters, promotions, and general correspondence every day. Are you cashing in on this technology? How do you use email to market to your customers? If you don’t have a good list, it’s time to get one.
An opt-in list is a collection of qualified email addresses – your customers, potential customers, or interested prospects. Though it seems to be easy to find email addresses and it’s tempting to buy a list from someone, there are legal and ethical guidelines you need to follow. Requiring the reader to “opt in” gives the reader control over their inbox, and ensures that you’re not viewed as a spammer.
A good opt-in list should include the profile of the email address owner. Here are tips on how to create a comprehensive opt-in list for target market.
Set up a promotion or a free giveaway on your website.
Not all the best things in life are free, as they say. But a good free resource benefits your readers and increases their trust in you. Everywhere you look you can find free e-books, screensavers, images, tutorials, etc. To get your freebie, all the site owner asks for is an email address, and sometimes your name. You can do this too. Write a report and give it away for free in exchange for an email address. These email addresses help you create your list.
Write and write some more – then submit
There are plenty of websites and online magazines where readers can submit articles. Write a killer article, add a link to your website, and submit it. Some readers of your article may enjoy your work so much they’d like to contact you, so don’t forget to leave your email address too.
Make it easy to opt-out
Any good marketer will give their reader a clear way to unsubscribe from an email list. People who like to join your opt-in list would, along the way may want to opt out of it somehow. People who are wary of joining may not join at all if they see that it would be near impossible to remove their email address from the listing. Show them that it is as easy to opt-out as it is opting in.
See what other successful marketers are doing
If you see something that’s working, take notes. Use that information to create your own techniques. Find a JV partner who would be willing to share with you. If you do that, make sure that this JV offers a service that will benefit your readers. It needs to be relevant and provide value.
Bottom line: Creating an opt-in list entails a lot of work, but it doesn’t need to cost you any money. Get creative. Offer a product or service. Remember, you are reaching to people that can be your one of your treasured customers for many years to come. 
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I’m hanging my head in shame as I type this! I’m paying $19.99 a month for Aweber and have been for just about a year now. I have an opt-in on my VA website and have about 20 subscribers. Here’s where the problem comes in – I understand the importance of having subscribers and building a relationship with them via this autoresponder but I don’t know how to come up with CONTENT for it. So instead I continue paying the 20 bucks a month and not utilizing the service and building a relationship with those that have signed up!
I struggle with this too – it takes time and focus to set up a good autoresponder series.
I’d say attack it like you would a series on a blog. Write down a few things you’d like to communicate to your readers, then write out a “post” for each of those things. Think of it like writing an email to your readers (which is essentially what you’re doing). Use those to set up messages in Aweber. If you want to add downloads, links, etc., this is the time to do it. Once you’ve created the messages, schedule them – and you’re done!
The nice thing about autoresponders is that you can “set it and forget it”, and Aweber handles it all so well. Set aside a few hours to get this done so it’s not hanging over your head.
Thanks for visiting – I love your site, btw