For any Internet marketer who is hoping to be successful in their online ventures, having a list of interested subscribers is an invaluable asset. The operative word here is "interested" - the more interested they are, the easier they will be to sell to. Collecting subscribers to this list is the daily pursuit of many IM persons, and ways and means to do this have been the subject of many an ebook or instructional video.



And once a list of a few subscribers have been collected, the direct marketing campaign can kick off. List building is one of the key marketing concepts nowadays - it's now right up there with traffic generation. Of course, you can't have one without the other, right? You can have your opt-in box on your homepage and your email campaign ready to roll, but if you're not getting folks to visit your website, how are they ever going to join your list? And lots of traffic is fantastic, but if there's no option for the visitors to opt in to your list, it's an opportunity missed. A website visitor may make a purchase from the products available but in many cases, the real gold is in customer retention and future repeat sales.

The Internet marketing industry seems to be now at the stage where the threat of spam has largely abated, through better filtering by email providers, and identification and outlawing of offenders. Control of spam (and the readily available unsubscribe option for lists) has helped to enhance email's image as a marketing tool, as companies and individuals strive to be more customer-aware and focused in their marketing efforts. By and large, the IM community is united in opposition to all forms of unsolicited mail.

Methods for attracting potential customers to an opt-in list are many and varied, but usually involve the offer of a free information product or a free subscription to a weekly newsletter. Or it could be a paid subscription which is offered free for a month, or a time-delimited software package. The tools required to code the opt-in list are readily available and the online marketing community is getting busy with lead gathering. Whole marketing campaigns can be built around this list, and extra information can be discreetly gathered at sign-up time, to allow for preferences to be catered for. This is possible because in addition to the usual “name” and “email address” fields which are presented to the user, extra fields can be added which help to refine the user's needs and wishes.

The demand for list-building tools and resources is gaining momentum constantly. This is evident by the huge volume tutorial material now available and the ease with which tutorial videos can be uploaded. Of course the bottom line will always be in firstly, getting customers to visit, and then to make that commitment and sign up. “If you build it, they will come” rings hollow in cyberspace. First you've got to build it, then get them to come, and most importantly, get them on that list.