Building an e-mail list for your local business is one of the single most effective marketing tools that you can build for your business. With a solid e-mail list you have a direct line to the people in your area that are most likely to buy your products and services.

If you are like a lot of businesses, you probably think that building an e-mail list is something that is difficult to do. You think to yourself that it will be hard to get customers or potential customers to give you their e-mail address. The truth is that it is much easier than you might imagine.

The key to building an e-mail list for your business, is to give someone a reason to give you their e-mail address in the first place. So the first thing that you have to think about is how you can get customers, or potential customers to give you their e-mail address.

The simplest solution is to simply ask. Many business overlook that if they ask their customers if they want to get on their e-mail list, that customers are more than willing to freely give them their e-mail address. So ask your customers. You simply tell them that you want to put them on your list so you can keep in touch with what is going on in your business.

Not getting enough people to say yes? Sweeten the pot. Give them something that they want.

If you are a restaurant, put a fish bowl at the entrance where people can drop their business cards to when a free lunch. Seems a little old-fashioned, but is amazingly effective. For the price of a meal you can grow you list by hundreds is a short period of time. This technique is highly effective for any business that has walk-in
business, everything from hair salons to mechanics.

The trick for any type of business is to come up with an incentive that is not very expensive for your business, but will give your customers or potential customers a reason to join your e-mail list.

Now that you have a good list, you need to find you a good e-mail list service to host your list. There are a bunch of good services on the market, simply perform an online search to “e-mail marketing” to find a provider that has the cost and service levels that you want for your business and sign-up.

You now have an e-mail list and a tool for sending e-mails to that list. Now you have to use it. Lots of businesses take the effort to build a list and then never use it. Create a schedule, and e-mail your customers regularly with information, tips, tricks, upcoming events, and the occasional sales pitch.

With just a little time and effort, you will have an asset that will grow your business and keep in touch with your customers, and at the end of the day money in the bank.