7 Easy Ways to Build Your Newsletter Opt-In List

1. Give them a reason for giving up their email address - Saying "join my mailing list!" alone won't do it. With rampant spam and identity theft on the rise, customers now treat their contact information as sacred (and they should!). They're immediately asking themselves, "what will I get in return?" and "Is this something I'm really interested in?"

They want to know how you'll be using their contact information as well, so tell them up front if you plan to be sharing it or using it for alternative marketing beyond what you've said on the opt-in form.

2. Make the offer valuable - but don't overdo it. You shouldn't have to bribe your customers to sign up for your newsletter by offering too many choices (such as free reports) all at once. One idea would be to show them a sample newsletter or detail what they can expect once they've signed up and received the item they were originally interested in.

3. Get the word out - Search for newsletter directories and add yours if appropriate. Let people know that they can use your newsletter content on their own website as long as you are credited with your name and a link back to your website.

4. Add your brand - Over time, if you consistently have good, relevant information, your visitors will begin to remember your name and your logo or website name. Use this information to your advantage and brand your e-mail newsletter with a kind of "letterhead" using your logo and domain name.

5. Add a "Member's Only" area. This is where newsletter subscribers can go to get back-issues or valuable "member only" bonuses as a result of signing up for your newsletter. Make it free to subscribe and watch your opt-in rate soar! You can do this easily through a professional website designer if you're unsure how to add this functionality to your pages.

6. Don't overuse images - In fact, avoid using them where you can (with the exception of the letterhead mentioned in point #4). Images trigger spam filters and are often blocked in today's e-mail software program, so even if you spent hours stressing over which photos were used - chances are a good percentage of your visitors won't see them, and won't enable the image option in their emails just to see what they're missing.
7. Meet the challenge - head on. As you get subscribers, you may also get e-mails containing a "challenge response". This is a rather new way of blocking spam and requires you to go to a web page and enter a special code to verify that you really want to contact the person.

While it might seem like an extra step or going out of your way to do, doing so shows that you appreciate the user's need to block spam, and that by taking this extra step, you're proving that you're not in the "spam" league, and your emails will be much more welcomed.

When used together, these seven tips can help you grow your mailing list in a relatively short amount of time with the least amount of stress. Good luck!