The other day, I was giving a workshop entitled Modern Marketing in Action and I was giving the students a number of tips to help them build a massive email list. One of the students asked me why anyone would want to do such a thing. He gets all kinds of spam email and has learned to hate the offending companies as a result. In fact, I suspect he subscribed to these various lists one way or another and just didn't realize it at the time. Nevertheless, he makes a good point and it's always good to begin the process by understanding the underlying motivations.

There are many reasons to develop an opt-in email list but this article will focus on just three. And let me say before we begin that if you have a website that gets a lot of traffic and you're NOT accumulating email addresses, you're making a big mistake. You're throwing real money right down the drain and I hope the following paragraphs will help explain why.

The internet is a fascinating place. People can visit your site from any corner of the globe and in most cases, you may never know they were there. Yes, there are traffic monitors and analytics platforms that can give you a lot of information about your websites visitors but the fact remains that you never SAW the visitor, you never shook hands, you never said hello. This lies in stark contrast to the corner stores of yesteryear. Building an email list is an effective way to quantify your audience and know who you're speaking to. So quantifying your audience is the first reason.

The second reason is to build a massive email list is to have a way of contacting these people in the future when you've expanded your product or service offering. These are people who found you all on their own. They are watching you, whether you like it or not. And if you have a new product you're introducing, they will have some natural interest in hearing about it. More importantly, you can contact these people and sell them products with absolutely zero marketing expense.

The third reason to accumulate email address is that it actually contributes real value to your business. In other words, if you sold your business one day and you had a large opt-in email list of customers, you would get more money for your business. Everybody knows these email lists represent a way of selling products with zero marketing expense and that means the company's profitability benefits by having the list. If you want to maximize the value of your business, you're well advised to start building an email list today.

As a business owner, there's always something else you have to do. It seems like your job is never over. And the task of building an email list is just one more thing you have to think about. But believe me; this task can contribute far more to your business than most others. The best approach is to integrate the task into your regular business. Find a way of accumulating email addresses without having to create a separate process. And after a while, you'll end up with a real asset on your hands - one that can be tapped or sold at any time. Nothing wrong with that!

About the Author

Tactical Execution with Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a strategic company focused on growth marketing and program implementation across business markets.