Author and speaker Jeffrey Gitomer says that over the next 10 years a company’s email list will be the most valuable asset a company can have. I agree. The more you effectively you communicate with the people on your list, the more valuable that list will become.

I’d like you to grow your list and communicate with the people on that list on a regular basis. You’ll be amazed at the results. Let me give you several principles for developing that list. Nine and a half to be exact.

1. Start Building a List

A good place to start with your personal database, whether it is from your Palm device or Outlook. An easy way to do this is by sending an email to your personal list asking permission to start sending your newsletter. Don’t assume everyone on your list wants to receive your newsletter. Also, when you meet a new person and get their business card, ask them if you can add them to your email newsletter list.

2. Get a good professional design to your email

You want your list to communicate your style and attitude. Spend a little money to have a professional put together a good-looking newsletter. People will admire you and your company for doing this.

3. Have an offer in each newsletter

Tell your audience what you can do and ask for business. Often we don’t get business because we don’t ask for it. For me, since I design and redesign web sites, I should ask people on a regular basis to call us about having their site redesign to make it more effective.

4. Toot Your Horn, But Not Too Much

A good rule of thumb is 80/20. Spend 80 percent of your newsletter on content and 20 percent promoting your company. Your audience will remember this, especially an audience who has grown weary of being marketed to.

5. Make them Laugh

Some of the best response I get is from the jokes in my newsletter. When I get an email from someone who receives my email, most of the time they say something about a joke I told in my letter. And hopefully they also want

6. Give Something of Value

This relates to the fourth point. Give your audience something that they can use and they’ll appreciate this. You still have to give them a point of action or otherwise your audience will be sucking you dry. I recently got an email from a guy who has been sending information for several years but realized he wasn’t getting back enough in new business from all the effort he was putting forth.

7. Don’t Send Too Often

I’m a big believer in this. I get a newsletter almost weekly from a local company and it becomes overwhelming to read their letter, especially if there’s stuff in the newsletter that is repeated week after week. Give me something new.

8. Make Unsubscribe Very Easy

Let’s be realistic-not everyone loves your newsletter. Give your audience a chance to unsubscribe. Making them jump through numerous hoops will only alienate your audience. Have a clear unsubscribe mechanism on each of your newsletters.

9. Forward to a Friend

Ask your audience to send your newsletter to other people. It’s not that hard for them and could land you several new subscribers each time you send a letter, especially if you have content that’s worthwhile for them to forward.

9.5 Put copies of Newsletters on Your Site

I’m not sure people will actually reads these but it’s worth it for search engines’ sake to have as much content on your site as possible. And it could get you new subscribers.

Dave Carlson owns Venturewide Internet Marketing, an Internet marketing firm specializing in driving visitors to web sites by search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, and web site design/redesign. 720-922-3124 visit his web site at http://www.venturewide.com

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