When I first started my small business marketing consulting business in 1998, I knew cultivating relationships was key to growing my business and getting new clients.

I knew I would need a way to stay in touch with the people I met at networking events, as well as my past clients, friends and business colleagues in order to facilitate referrals.

So I started sending out a monthly text email called "Tips & Trends."

It consisted of a brief "hello" message and a link to a page on my web site with information on a current marketing trend I'd read about and some helpful marketing tips.

This whole process was pretty crude. I managed it out of Microsoft Outlook and my goal was never to build a big list, but rather to stay in touch with people I already knew.

And you know what? It worked.

For five years, 100% of my small business marketing clients came from referrals from people who received those emails. I am confident these are people I would have lost touch with otherwise. That was my first taste of email marketing, and I was hooked.

Fast-forward to 2004 and the launch of my new small business marketing venture, 10stepmarketing.

Email marketing was the first marketing tactic I selected. At this point however I realized my goal had to be to build a massive list of prospects. I needed to do more than simply stay in touch with the people I already knew, I needed to attract lots of new prospects.

So I focused much of my marketing on writing and publishing my ezine, and building my list.

I took the same articles I was publishing in my ezine each week and started posting them in free article directories on the web. And I started offering a free gift to encourage my web site visitors to subscribe.

And the rest as they say is history.

Email marketing has been one of my primary marketing vehicles. It has helped me create a presence on the web with little monetary investment. And it has enabled me to build a large following of prospects who are interested in what I have to offer.

So what lessons have I learned in my eight years of email marketing?

Here are 5 of them:

(1) Email marketing is the easiest, cheapest way to stay in touch and generate referrals.

(2) Put an opt-in box on every page of your website to build your list quicker.

(3) Write and post lots of articles on the web to drive traffic and build your list for free.

(4) Offer a free gift to encourage more of your web site visitors to join your list.

(5) Be aware of spam trigger words and avoid them at all costs so your email messages get delivered.

Even with the newer technologies such as RSS, podcasting and blogging, I believe email marketing will continue to be a popular and effective way to generate prospects and build relationships.

After all, relationship marketing isn't new, it's always been effective, and our goal as small business marketers and business owners is to use whatever technology is available to us, and is used by our prospects and clients, to stay in touch with them and to serve them.

(C) Copyright 2006 Debbie LaChusa, 10stepmarketing