The three major tasks of email marketing are building your opt-in email-subscriber list, building trust, and inciting action. This article will focus on the first—and, for many, most-challenging—task: getting people to sign up for your email list.

The basic method of gaining a subscriber is simply asking someone to sign up for your mailing list. If a customer or client is already an engaged consumer and trusts you, then there is a good chance that customer will say yes right away.

In most cases, though, you need to offer the consumer some benefit. At the very least, you'll describe what will be in your newsletters that the consumer would want: information, special offers, discounts, etc.

The sweeter the deal, the better your chances that your visitor will become a subscriber. Many email-list managers offer a free autoresponder e-course, free e-book or video download, or special one-time discount. Those are basic techniques for email list-building.

Here are nine more-advanced list-building techniques that increase subscriber numbers and sometimes improve conversion rates as well.

1. Develop a Detailed Sign-up Page

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