An opt-in e-mail list is essentially a list of subscribers that have established or hinted at an interest in your services, products or even from acquiring further information and recommendations from you. Most Internet Marketing professionals use opt-in email lists to increase the number of sales being generated through their websites. It's relatively easy to set-up a list, all that's required is a form to collect the data and subsequently, a database into which you sort, filter and process the addresses you have collected. This process can all be simplified by using any one of the many e-mail marketing tools out there on the market right now.
The best use of the e-mail list or opt-in list is for collecting names of potential customers or people with an interest in the range of services or products that you offer. People usually express this interest by signing up to your list in return for a free incentive like an E-Book or additional hints or tips you can impart with due to your extensive knowledge. Always remember it's seven times harder to attract a new customer than it is to push your products or services through an existing one and thus garner a new sale. An E-Mail list helps you maintain contact with your user base and also gives you another potential channel through which you can promote your products to thousands of targeted subscribers. Keep in mind that your e-mail subscribers are your premium traffic or users, they have already declared an interest in what it is you have to offer and in this respect they differ vastly from search engine traffic as traffic that has originated from a search engine is still yet to express and form of intention to purchase.
Your e-mail marketing software should include all the functionality you require to be able to manage your list and send and customise emails, segment your subscribers and also schedule when your emails should be delivered. It should also be affordable so it's always worth shopping around before you decide to purchase. Finally, the main factor you should consider before deciding to purchase any e-mail marketing tool is deliverability it can have a significantly negative impact on the performance of your campaign if your emails cannot bypass certain ISP filters.