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Building an email list

So you've setup your newsletter, but the only subscribers are your mom, your best friend and your cat, twinkletoes@kittymail.com (note: cats tend to get so distracted trying to eat the mouse that they rarely get to checking their email). There are people out there who are interested in your product.

The trick is: how to get them to subscribe?

A lot of people will quite happily subscribe on their own. Make sure your "subscribe" box or link is featured heavily on your homepage. Also, have a "subscribe to our newsletter" check box in the checkout (most shopping carts do this by default). I've seen over 75% take up of this on sites. However, if you want even more people to subscribe (and you do!) then offer them an incentive. Here's a few ideas, remember, you need to promote these on your site to encourage people to subscribe:

• Have a monthly prize draw for newsletter subscribers
• Have special offer(s) just for newsletter subscribers
• Offer subscribers first opportunity to buy a hot new product

Sit down and brainstorm. What incentive can you offer to your subscribers? You also need to make sure that there is nothing making them reluctant to subscribe. Spam is always a concern and so you need to reassure them. A simple "We won't give or sell your email address to anyone else" message at the point of subscription is a good idea. Also, some text about the frequency of the newsletter may help as well as a message indicating that they can unsubscribe easily.

You also need to consider: do you want to collect any other information at this point? For customers, you have all their data so that's easy. For someone just wanting your newsletter, you might need to work a bit harder. Perhaps you want their first name so you can personalize it, and their country/region so you can send out targeted emails. I'd advise making anything apart from the email address optional though.

Put it all together, and you'll soon be on your way to what is possibly the most cost efficient marketing tool you can have.