The more you learn about internet marketing, the more you will find the importance of list building being emphasized. However, when they are asked to explain lists and list building, they often stumble and are at a loss for words. A list is nothing more than a database of your potential customers; and list building is simply increasing the size of that list so that the number of people who may buy from you increases – and that is list building explained in its most basic form. Or, to put it simply, the list is your market and list building is expanding it.
People visit your site because something about what you have to offer has attracted their interest – how and why they get interested is another subject altogether. But just visiting your site does not mean that you will get their business – in fact, very rarely does a first visit result in any sales being concluded. The way to get sales is by building up your brand (your website and business in other words) and the way to do this is by constantly reminding people who you are, what you have to offer and how buying form you is better than buying from anywhere else. To do this you will need to be in regular contact with them and keep sending them information that will excite their interest along with reasons why they can satisfy their need by buying form you.
The key to online business success is building trust and the only way this can happen is to get your potential customers to know you and this is done by staying in communication with them in other words, using your list. The email addresses that you use for this communication is your list and is the key to your market.
Many rookies to ecommerce mistakenly think that when it come to lists, size is all that matters. It doesn’t work that way – what good is list of 10,000 email address of people in Iceland when you are trying to sell Bermuda shorts? A good list is one where there can be a good conversion rate, not one that is simply full of email addresses – a conversion rate of 20% with a focused list of 1,000 addresses will be far more profitable than a list of 10,000 that results in a conversion rate of just 1%.