Using Email Lists to Build Your Business

The internet is a powerful tool that brings the world together in ways that no other medium can. No other medium offers the ability for instant feedback like the internet does and no medium offers a company a better chance for real time interaction with their customers than the internet. Part of that instant interaction with customers is the ability to gather email addresses and update customers when things are happening in a real time way. For example, if you were to collect a large email list of customers waiting for your next product release then you could get the hype started for that release by sending out regular updates to that email list and build the anticipation for your new product. It can be said that nothing travels faster than new information on the internet and you can use that to your advantage as you continue to build email lists.
There are many ways you can use to collect email addresses but there are a few things that you need to keep in mind prior to adding an email address to your contact list. First and foremost is the need to get permission to send information to an email address. Always include something in your email sign up form that informs the customer that they will receive update emails from the company once they supply their email address. You can give the customer an option that excludes them from receiving updates and you should honor that request. When a customer requests to be excluded from an email list then any email sent to them can be considered unsolicited and if you continue to send unsolicited emails to a lot of people then you will get labeled as a spammer and that involves the law and losing your ability to send emails. It is in your best interest to get permission to use each and every email address you acquire.
The best way to collect email addresses is to make the email address part of the form required to sign up to get technical support from your company. Of course you need to give the customer the option of not receiving emails from you but if they choose to receive emails then you have the email address of a customer who is already familiar with your product and should be more receptive to product updates and the hype surrounding the release of new products. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising so if you can get your core customers talking about your products because of email updates they get then that can start an internet buzz and that is worth its weight in gold as far as marketing experts are concerned.
There are other forms of collecting emails that can add to your list but may not be as effective as the customers that already have your products. No matter how you add to your email list you are still adding to the amount of people you are sending the word out to and that direct marketing approach is always very powerful. A passive way to collect email addresses is to simply set up a form on your website that allows people to sign up for product updates via email. If you are getting sufficient traffic to your website then this list should be growing on a daily basis. Another great way to add to your email list is to partner with companies that have products complimentary to yours and then put out an internet advertisement allowing people to seek more information about your two products. For example, if your company develops video games then you could partner with a popular video game console maker and announce your newest game and then ask people to submit their email address for future updates.
Email is a direct conduit to an end user and a very valuable way of marketing new products and updates to existing products. As long as you have the address owner's permission to send them emails you have a very positive way of increasing your company's exposure and selling power.