It’s pretty hard to have a relationship with somebody if they don’t ever hear from you!

That’s why the cornerstone to creating an ongoing marketing relationship with your prospects and clients is to build a permission-based email list.

Only when people have given you their permission to market to them, and you have their name and email address, can you start to have any kind of business relationship with them.

In order to build a hot and steamy list….or at least a satisfied and happy list of prospective and current customers, you need to strategically use every point of contact with people.

Here are some suggestions on different ways you can get people to opt-in to your list:

• make sure you have an opt-in box/sign-up form on the top of every page of your website
• advertise your opt-in form when you ship products - include it in a postcard or a colored one-pager included in the shipping box/envelope
• include a “send to a friend” option with your ezine, special reports and so on
• have the link to your free-giveaway/ezine sign-up form in your resource box at the end of any articles you distribute to article submission sites and other people’s ezines
• give information on how people can sign up for an email subscription with all your print ads and direct mail
• have your opt-in message and box on your shopping cart pages when people purchase something
• have email signatures on all email being sent out by you and employees to have a one-line blurb about signing up for the company email newsletter or free report
• include information and link to your ezine/free report opt-in page in any press releases you send out
• add sign-up information to invoices, warranty and product registration cards
• have call center and sales staff ask people if they’d like to receive ezines and informational emails - whenever they’re talking to a prospect or customer over the phone
• promote your free-giveaway and provide sign up information at all your in-person meetings, workshops, trade shows and presentations
• promote your ezine or free special report in consumer and trade publications, other company’s publications, industry sites and directories
• add the opt-in box to any reports, white papers and registration forms you send out
• include information on how to opt-in to your ezine or free-giveaway on any surveys you send out to people

As you can see, there are many places of contact with your prospects and clients where you can tell them about your free-giveaway, special report or ezine subscription. Take advantage of these opportunities to add people to your email list - so that you can ensure a profitable and productive marketing relationship between you.

In order to gain your prospects’ and clients’ attention you have to appeal to their pleasure or their pain.

Your future and current customers are looking for products and services that will enhance their lives personally, professionally, spiritually, emotionally or physically.  You will enhance their lives either through alleviating or eliminating some kind of pain for them OR providing them with something pleasurable and enjoyable.

You’re probably thinking that I’ve “dumbed” it down too much but it really is that simple.  Your prospects and clients will go searching for something when they have pain or want some pleasure.

Or maybe I should say, they will pay money to you to change how they feel - positive or negative.  They might go looking for solutions out of curiosity but the majority of them won’t hand over their hard-earned money to you unless they are actively needing something.

So that means your marketing needs to target people’s points of pain, discomfort, dissatisfaction or on the flip side, it must show how they can add more pleasure, enjoyment, joy, happiness, satisfaction into their lives.

Of course, sometimes the two (pain and pleasure) aren’t mutually exclusive….get rid of some pain and the person will feel better, but the important thing is that the person went looking for pain relief.

Before you can determine if your marketing message and communication is around pain or pleasure, you need to figure out what your products and services promise.

What benefits do you guarantee your business offerings will provide?  Does your product help people alleviate pain or obtain pleasure?

Remember that people make buying decisions because they believe that a service or product will help them in some way.

It may help them gain more:  money, health, success, love, time, recognition, security, confidence, respect, and control.

Or it may help them avoid:  danger, losing money, ridicule, losing love, frustration, pain, risk, failure, embarrassment.