Article: The three most important groups to market to via email are your current customers, past customers, and prospective customers. Use a spreadsheet to create a database of their names and email addresses. If you don’t already have the email addresses, you’ll need to start collecting them. To build your list, use your website, storefront, front desk, and every phone call to request your visitor's email address.  Keep a clipboard at the front desk or storefront of your business for people to sign up for your email list. Entice them into signing up by offering discount coupons and other advantages that will only be sent via email. Make it relevant to what they are currently doing. Are they reading a long how-to guide? Then offer a summarized actionable checklist in exchange for their email. All you need is their name and email address to get started. Don’t ask for too much information at this point. Many people will be reluctant to sign up for an email list unless you assure them you will keep their email addresses and personal information private. This should be promised upfront. Along with the initial promise, you should develop a privacy statement that will be included at the bottom of every email you send out. This statement should be brief and to the point.  Privacy statements should state that your company will never give out email addresses to third parties and will only be used for the purposes of marketing your company’s products and services. It should also be mentioned that the email content is confidential and intended only for the individual named. Also state that if the email has been received in error, the recipient should notify the company so that their email can be deleted from the email list.  Example: Your privacy is important to us. We will not disclose your personal information to any third party unless you have given us consent or we are required to do so by law. If you do not wish to receive communication from this company, you can opt out by replying to this email and notifying us. Keep email addresses organized in spreadsheets and make sure you separate them. At minimum, you should have the emails broken into lists of current customers, past customers and prospective customers. Creating separate email lists allows you to send different emails to the groups, each with their own targeted content. As you go along, you can get more specific with your lists for even better targeting.  Keeping separate lists also helps you to prevent spamming them with irrelevant content, which reflects poorly on your company.  It’s important to build relationships with your recipients through email marketing. Targeted lists with relevant content will help you do that.

What is a summary?
Build your email list. Promise privacy. Create different email lists.