Whether yours is a simple mom and pop business or a larger email marketing business, building your own mailing list is key to keeping your customers informed and connected. In marketing businesses, a mailing list can really make a difference to the bottom line. Direct sales calls can be expensive and time consuming. If you are a home based business and want to generate leads or even qualify them, direct mail will save advertising costs. It’s a great way to introduce new products or information to your current customer. If they’ve bought the blue widgets from your company in the past they may be interested in the new improved purple ones. The idea is to never take your customers for granted. Keep them informed and offer them choices.

Many websites don’t have anything set up on their sites to ask your permission to get back to you. This is a big mistake. If someone has browsed your site and you haven’t set up a way to contact them of any future sales or goodies you might be offering, like a newsletter for instance, you may be losing out on a life-long customer. That’s how you should look at building your mailing list- this is a list of potential life-long customers. When you go shopping in a store you usually get asked if you would like some help finding something, don’t you? Well, consider that your website is very much like a store and the only way you will get to talk to your customers is by getting them to leave their name and email.

It is so easy to set up a request feature. You can choose from a wide range of autoresponders. They offer you the set -up screens you need to get someone’s name and address and it is quite simple to do. Once it is installed you are on your way to building your mailing list. Simply wait a few days and send a brief introductory letter, thanking them for visiting your website. Because they ‘signed up’ for your list, you can then add some tempting product offer links. You are advertising and marketing through e-mail! The beauty of this is that the person added subscribed to your mailer- you are not being a pesky scammer. Still, make sure you have an ‘unsubscribe’ feature on all your mailings.

Get your autoresponder set up today! You’ll soon see how building your own mailing list is the ‘bread and butter’ of doing business on the Internet.