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Most Internet marketers do not realize the importance of building a huge opt-in mailing list. They figure it is good enough to be making affiliate sales from their website. If you fail to build an opt-in mailing list, you will lose a large percentage of potential customers.

Having a list allows you to keep in touch with your site’s visitors and slowly build a relationship with them. If done properly, you can then convert a high percentage of otherwise lukewarm prospects into paying customers. So exactly what does it take to build a great opt-in list quickly and easily? Here are some useful tactics:

* Offer an incentive to get people to give you their email address and name. This is one of the best ways to encourage people to sign up for your list. I like to offer a special report, free Internet marketing course, or anything else that my visitors find useful. It is essential to give them something for signing up for your list. This tip alone can easily double the number of opt-ins you receive.

I see many people trying to build a list without offering any kind of incentive for signing up which can be a huge mistake. Incentives are so easy to create that it only makes sense to offer one. Anything with a high-perceived value that you offer free will help boost signups significantly. I’ve test both ways of list building and I must say that offering incentives will give you far better results.

* Include a clearly written privacy policy. In all likely-hood, the main reason people refuse to leave their contact information is because they are afraid of being spammed. This has been a huge problem on the Internet for years. No one likes spam. If people have any reason to suspect that you will share their email address with others they will usually not let you have it. Give them a rock solid guarantee that you will not share their email address with anyone. This will put to rest the worries of people wanting to avoid spam. At one point I did not have a clearly defined privacy policy, however, after I added one I saw a 61% increase in the number of opt-ins I was receiving. Simple things like this can make a huge difference.

* Create multiple, tightly targeted lists. Very few comprehend the power of this tactic. By offering multiple lists on one site you drastically increase the chances of people finding something that interests them enough to sign up for. One of the lists could be for general updates, another could include tips your market would find useful, while another could be a monthly newsletter. No matter which option they choose you get their email address.

Think about what lists your market might be interested in, then offer those options on your site. A website visitor may have no interest in your generic mailing list but have a much greater interest in your newsletter. If you had not provided multiple options that person would have signed up for nothing. Usually three options are enough. If your visitors have not found something that interests them after three choices they are generally not worth going after.

* Be sure to make all your lists double opt-in. Double (or Verified) opt-in lists require people to first sign up on your site, and then activate their subscription by replying to a confirmation email. There are many good reasons to use the double opt-in format. First of all, it will take away any chance of being labeled a spammer. You can show definitive proof that people actually did requested your emails.

An added benefit to you is that the double opt-in method will result in a list that is significantly higher quality than a singe opt-in list. If these people are interested in your offer enough to verify with the confirmation email, they tend to be much more serious and interested in what you have to offer.

By putting the above tips into use you will be able to build a massive, high quality list in the shortest amount of time possible. I have personally tested all of these methods and they work marvelously. They will work for you too.

Tags: Marketing