~by Haley Gray~

A fairly advanced trick for business owners is to build your email list. If you want to take money to the bank, and grow your business aggressively, an email list is an absolute must.

Think of it this way – each time you send out an email, you’re going to get requests for business. However, there are a few things that you need to know when building your email list and sending emails so that it works, and so that you don’t get in hot water with the feds!

7 Important List Building Tips

1. Make sure that everyone you add to your list has given you explicit permission to add them to the list, or that they are a customer of record.
2. Every time you send out a communication, there must be a way to unsubscribe. 
3. If you are going to send out emails, consistency is key! If customers know that they can expect a weekly email, or monthly email, then they will look for it. To get the best results, you have to be absolutely consistent about sending emails.
4. Deliver quality content to your list. Send helpful tips and advice that will have people interested in opening your emails.
5. Have a single call to action in each and every email. Tell clients what you’d like them to do, or ask them to do something. There needs to be a purpose behind the email, but don’t ask them to do multiple things, or they will quite simply do nothing!
6. There is such a thing as sending too much email. You will burn out your subscribers quickly if you are too ‘spammy’ or if you send out email too often. I’ve seen people recommend sending out daily emails, and segmenting the market aggressively. I’m not a fan of those techniques; they turn me away from the business and make me click unsubscribe very quickly. If there is no value-add to the customer in your emails, they will quit reading!
7. You can build your list using Facebook, LinkedIn, your blog, and face to face contacts. Use all of your resources when building your email list. 

You should not add everyone you collect a business card from to your mailing list.  It may seem tempting to do that, but it can get you into serious hot water with the FTC.  Resist the urge to add everyone and anyone to your email list. It can cost you serious money in terms of fines and penalties. It can cause you to get booted from your email list management system. It will also cost you more. The truth is, you don’t want to have a lot of people on your email list who will never buy from you or who aren’t the appropriate target audience, because you’re going to be paying your list handler based on the size of your list. Don’t do it! Just say no to adding everyone to your list.