A mailing list a list of email addresses of people of whom you have permission from to send your product advertisements and other things regarding your business to that email. As far as your mailing list is concerned, you need to think how you are going to compile it. The simplest way is to be up-front and ask visitors to your site for their email addresses and get their permission to email them.

A good step to ensure that your database is up-to-date is to send an email to all your customers and clients, reconfirming their details and getting their permission to email them with promotional material.

For example, if you are running a promotion in one city, you might send the initial communication to everyone on your list, but your follow-up emails would only go to people in that city. For the best results many marketing experts recommend that you personalize every message, at least have the persons name in the opening line and possibly in the body of the email as well. The more personalized and relevant your messages are, the greater your success will be.

Once you have put the hard work in to compiling your list, you need to treat it with respect. Unlike with direct marketing which is often a ‘one-off’ campaign, you want to develop an ongoing relationship with your prospects. Even if you do not sell to them immediately, you may have a product or service for them in the future.

It is easy to send people a series of emails. Many mailing list services promote this as part of their service, stating that you can write different messages in advance which they will send over the coming days, weeks and months. This mailing list feature is expressed by some providers, for example the service provider will send a series of six emails over a period of two weeks and each email has a little more information aimed at tempting the customers to buy.

But before you venture into your database with emails, put yourself in the recipients’ shoes and ask how often you would like to receive e-mails and how many follow-ups you would think are reasonable. It is best to send too few than too many, to prevent people from unsubscribing because they are fed up with receiving your emails. On the other hand, you do not want to communicate after so long that your prospects don’t remember who you are. Try and find a balance between the two.

Timing is very important when sending emails and will affect the success of your business. In most cases you will benefit in some months of the year than others depending on the demand of your product or service.

It is therefore necessary to have your mailing list frequently, in order to keep in touch with your customers and be able to maintain a long-term relationship. You may have heard this from time to time but it is true, "The Money is in the List".