When marketing on the internet one of your top priorities should be to build a list of potential customers. Generally the use of a squeeze page is required to collect a list of email addresses that will be the focal point of your email based marketing campaign. By opting into your list people agree to accept promotional emails from you in the future. For anyone marketing on the internet promoting to a targeted list like this is one of the fastest ways to increase sales.

Now the question is what is the fastest way to compile a list of email addresses that will help accelerate the growth of your business?

Here are 8 steps you need to take to build yourself a list of prospects that will become the focal point of your email based marketing campaign.

Set Up a Squeeze Page

Have well written content but keep it brief and in an easy to read format ideally using bullet points to highlight the benefits of your gift. You want them to opt in and nothing else so keep your message clear on focused on this objective. Do not distract them with any other needless text or attempt to sell anything.

Keep Graphics to a Minimum

Keep your use of graphics on the squeeze page to a minimum! You do NOT want to distract visitors but instead keep them laser focused on what you want them to do which is OPT-IN.

Make Subscribing Simple

Provide an opt-in box that is easy to find and even easier to navigate. Do not make the visitor hunt for the where to leave their contact information. Allowing for the slightest hesitation can be the difference between visitors joining your list or leaving the page.

Locate the opt-in box prominently on your squeeze page and if possible make it the focal point.

Provide an Incentive

Ah yes the free giveaway! In the world we live in it seems nothing gets done without a little 'incentive' being offered first. By making available a free gift to anyone joining your list you have just made the offer more tempting. It is a generally expected and accepted practice to offer a giveaway on your squeeze page to increase your opt-in rates.

Set Up an Auto-Responder

Upon joining your list you want new members to immediately receive a 'welcome' email from you along with anything else you may have promised them. After this you want to send messages at certain timed intervals to your list members. The best way is to automate the process with the use of an auto-responder.

There are a ton of services available online that will accommodate your needs and it is highly recommended to use one.

Use Social Media Sites

Using social network, bookmark or video sites can put you in front of large volumes of people. Done correctly you can greatly accelerate your list building efforts by using social media and network sites.

Use Forums

Forums are similar to social network sites except that they are more focused on a particular topic. These sites do not contain the large volume of people like networking sites do but the people you make contact with here are highly targeted.

Promote Your Website

Whether you use pay per click, article marketing a blog or even press releases you want to promote your website and increase your exposure as much as you can. At this point it is all about generating traffic and as much as you can. Welcome to the world of internet marketing!

A top priority for anyone working online is to build a list of potential customers to whom you can promote using email based marketing. The people who opt in on your squeeze page are agreeing to accept promotional emails from you. Having a targeted list like this that you can market to will tremendously boost your sales efforts which is a huge advantage online. The 7 steps we reviewed here today will help you build a list quickly getting you into profit and expanding your business in no time.