Your own list: to build, or not to build?

To build, or not to build. That is the question. With a number of Websites that outcomes the number of people leaving on our planet, and only 1/6 of them connected to the internet, you can be sure that you will need more than just publish your Website to make in be seen by the audience.

You can use any form of advertising, and get good traffic; but once your visitor is gone, if you didn't collect his email address, the chances for this visitor to come again to your Website are minimal. Then, not to grab your visitors contact email will be an inefficient, missed task.

Web traffic implies a cold relation. People go to your site and navigate into it: your site is the exhibit of your product and service. You can have a very appealing site and offer a great service or product, and that will make your visitor to stay longer. But, the cold is there; no relationship between the exhibitor and the prospect is being made to this point.

When you build a list you establish a relationship with you subscribers; first you earn their trust offering them something they will consider of value; then, you build empathy with them: you will make something, anything, to make your potential customers like you. Once they trust you, and even like you, they will buy from you. In this aspect, the online and the offline worlds are alike: people buy from them who trust or like.

But there is another important factor to be considered: the price-sales ratio of the items sold. You might have heard it takes the same effort to sell a $937 item than a $9.99 one. But It doesn't work that way. Think from yourself: if you will buy a high price item, you will research first, find the best deal or promotion, find the seller you trust more, the one that offers you the best guarantee, etc. For a low price item, you won’t think it twice; you might even buy it on impulse if you like the item. So, the selling strategies for both price tags are different.