[This is an adaptation of an earlier article on 29 Ways to Build Your Email List]

If you have been thinking about starting an e-marketing strategy or you have a strategy in place, having the right house e-mail list is vital. This month, we'll look at how to build your house e-mail list using online techniques.

We have all heard that there are three keys to an e-marketing campaign – list, creative and offer. If you don't have the right list, you can forget about the creative and the offer as they don't matter. Going after the right target audience is your first key.

The Acquisition Imperative

Every day more companies "discover" e-mail marketing, decide to get in the game and start sending their customers and prospects electronic messages. At the same time, hundreds of other companies send out permission e-mails to a subscriber list that, according to industry averages, is undergoing about 40 percent attrition per year. At that rate, an initial list of 2500 email shrinks by almost 1000 addresses in the first year of existence. This only includes the bounce backs. There is a whole other bucket you have to consider - unsubscribes.

Because you are competing with legitimate marketers as well as spammers, the e-marketing practices you use can result in either obtaining a new customer or winding up on a spam list, being blacklisted by ISPs, and being fined.

Whether starting a new e-mail marketing list or growing an existing list, acquiring new subscribers is a marketing imperative no company can ignore. A growing list of subscribers is paramount to supporting the reach and effectiveness of your e-mail marketing initiatives.

Endless Opportunities

If you're ready to offer or are currently producing an e-newsletter or other e-communications for your company and you've committed to e-mail as a strategic e-marketing initiative, now is the time to offer every single opportunity for people to subscribe to your house list.

Here are several ways to for you to make it easy for people to subscribe to your e-communications, generate leads and to convert readers to subscribers. This month, we'll cover online tools you can use. Next month, we'll explore the offline methods for building your house e-mail list.

Remember, obtaining the e-mail address is the first step, convincing them to get your e-communications is the next step.

Building Your House E-Mail List Online

- Don't forget your web site. Put your e-mail communications sign-up form on your homepage so people don't have to go in search of it. In addition, embed the sign-up opportunity on every page of your web site. Remember, the back end after they sign-up. Initially, ask only for the basics such as name, e-mail address, and zip code. Anything else will make them suspicious. You are developing a relationship, and are in the courting phase so you have to date before you marry. Include autoresponder messages such as “thank you” for signing up and re-confirm what they signed up for, and the frequency of messages. You might also include “confirmation” messages as well, to confirm the single or double-opt in mechanism you are utilizing.
- "Send This Page to a Colleague" forms. Allow people the ability to forward your communications to other people.
- From within the "Send This Page to a Colleague" e-mails. When that "colleague" receives the link from his friend, offer a "subscribe directly to our newsletter" link.
- Collateral download. Anytime anyone registers to obtain whitepapers or other collateral off your web site, ask them to sign up.
- Links within your RFQ or RFI forms. Ask people to sign up for your newsletter when they request info.
- "Out of office" e-mails. Have employees pitch the newsletter or other communications in their out of office e-mail message.
- E-mail footers and signatures. Using a program like Tumbleweed, you can insert marketing messages into every e-mail sent from your company.
- Web co-op programs. Partner with complementary sites that link their newsletter subscription forms to yours. Respond in kind with a subscription option for their e-newsletter on your site.
- On-line ads soliciting subscribers. Offer an incentive such as a whitepaper or free invitation to a webinar. Don't forget to match the incentive with the audience. You are trying to qualify leads in this process, so you don't want to lure people only interested in the offer. Advertise only in areas where your target audience is likely to see it.
- A simple subscriber e-mail address. Allow people to simply send a message to subscribe@yourcompany.com to register.
- Co-registration. Place a check box for your newsletter on other sites that reach the same target market. Essentially, your subscription piggybacks on another subscription or sign-up form somewhere else.
- Include in your shopping cart mechanism. Include a way to opt into your communications after a purchase has been made, or even if they look like they are going to abandon the purchase or come back later.
- Search engine ads. Don't forget search engine optimization on your subscription pages and consider running PPC ads for words relating directly to your content.
- Contextual advertising – Place ads not only in search engines, but also on targeted sites that offer this service.

The way to get the most out of e-mail is to segment your database and target content to those segments. E-mail makes this easy to do, especially because new subscribers can segment themselves.

These are only some of the e-mail address acquisition possibilities. We are sure there are many more that you can dream up that relate directly to your own business.

Remember, if your newsletter is difficult to find, let alone subscribe, you're only producing half the satisfaction you should and shortchanging your customers on some potentially valuable information.

Tune in at this same time next month for ideas on how to grow your email list using offline tools.