Internet users know that their personal information is important so they won’t give their email address away unless you give them a compelling reason to do so. This poses a challenge for marketers who want to build their opt-in mailing list. It is a good thing then that there are many strategies you can use to entice users into revealing their email address to you. Basically, you just need to offer special benefits to your subscribers, relate to their needs, and provide information that will encourage them to return to your site.

Most internet marketers think of newsletters as their incentive but this strategy won’t work for all business. For example, if yours is a company that sells furniture, sending out information about chairs and tables every week just won’t work. There are other ways to build-in your opt-in mailing list aside from offering newsletters. Among these include:

1. A free course ? if you are an expert in your chosen field, use this to your benefit. You need to understand what your audience is looking for when they visited your site. The free course can come in the form of text, audio, or videos depending on the course material you choose.

2. Downloadable articles ? if your site has a lot of informative content, offer downloadable articles as the specific benefit for your subscribers. They will be able to view the entire content if they register to your site.

3. Free e-book ? this concept is related to downloadable articles because both are offering instant information in exchange for the visitor’s email address. Free e-books take this one step further though because it offers major value to the subscribers.

4. Contest or games ? contest is an effective way to get subscribers. Be sure that the prize you are offering are relevant to the visitor’s needs and wants though. For example, if you are targeting the youth market, you may want to use MP3 players as the prize provided that the business can afford it.

5. Members-only forum ? members-only forum can draw a lot of people in niche markets. In fact, some people even pay to become members of popular forums. This can be an effective way to get a lot of subscribers but the forum also need to have “advisers” who are well-established in their respective fields.