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At the heart of every successful business is a great list of people to target with marketing. Building that list should be one of your primary goals. If you need a quick infusion of sales, there are things you can do without spending a lot of time. Here are five quick ways to build your marketing list.

I. Ezine Advertising: One way to reach a whole new group of prospects is to identify a business catering to your target audience and advertise in their ezine. An “ezine” is simply a newsletter sent by email to clients and prospects.

Many ezine publishers accept advertising in their newsletters, and there’s an easy way to find out who they are. At www.directoryofezines.com, you can pay to subscribe to their listing of ezines that accept advertising.

Now, you may be thinking it would be easier to simply place ads on those businesses’ websites. Here’s why ezine advertising is more effective: their prospects are much more likely to open and read their email newsletter than to go out and visit their website. That simple fact makes placing an ad in their ezine a better use of your marketing dollars.

II. Ecademy: The online business networking group www.ecademy.com is a good place to not only advertise but to learn what works in your ads. Ecademy allows members to place classified ads free in their online marketplace. Because many small business owners and solo professionals subscribe to this group, it’s a good way to reach that audience. Ecademy also supplies you with statistics on how many people clicked through to your website or member profile, so you can test ads and see which result in the best click-through rate.

III. Trade Magazine Articles: A quick way to establish yourself as an expert in your field is to write articles for related trade magazines. It will take some research to learn which magazines professionals who need your products are reading, but the exposure you’ll gain with that audience will be worth it. Not only can you provide useful information those professionals can use, they’ll also see your contact information in the author’s resource box.

A tip for maximizing the resource box—rather than simply stating the nature of your business, offer the reader something tangible in return for their contact information. For example, instead of simply “Ms. Doyle is an expert in phone sales techniques” I’d offer to send them a free report on increasing phone sales success. Just be sure to follow-up when someone raises their hand and expresses interest.

IV. Online Article Sites: Not only can you submit articles establishing you as an expert to trade magazines, you can also submit them to online article directories. Again, these articles each include your author’s resource information at the bottom, so that interested parties can contact you.

There are lots of websites that allow authors to submit articles and there are different ways to submit them. One way is to research these article directories and submit your articles yourself. This method can be fairly tedious and time-consuming.

Another way to get your articles in online directories is to have a service submit them for you. One that’s fairly inexpensive is www.submityourarticle.com. The third way is to have an individual who specializes in online article submissions send your articles out all over the Internet. Someone like that normally has a database of article sites and will charge a per article fee to submit your writing. An example of that type of service is www.articlesthatsell.com.

V. Public Speaking: One more way to build your marketing list quickly is to give talks at gatherings your target audience is attending. Not only does this build credibility with potential clients, it also increases your visibility. There’s one essential thing you must do if you start doing public speaking to build your list. You must think of a way to get people to raise their hands when you’re finished and request more information.

One way to do that is with a giveaway. Offer something tangible such as a free report to people who give you their contact information. Having a drawing for a free product is also a good way to gather names for your marketing list. Either way, follow up quickly with anyone who expresses interest at one of your talks.

As you can see, there are many ways to generate interest with a whole new audience and begin growing your marketing list. Try more than one of these ideas to see which ones give the best results. You’ll soon find which ones bear fruit for your particular type of business, and be on the road to increased sales and income.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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