Every company should have an information data base, agreed?

The data base should specifically contain a list of e-mails.  Are you with me so far?

(Here's where I usually start losing people.)  The e-mails should be for active customers, prospects, vendors and other business partners, members of the media and other people interested in receiving quality information about your industry.  It's okay if the lists are segmented, but you should have at least one list containing those five market segments.

Still with me?  If you have a list size is important.  Bigger isn't always better, but you must have enough e-mails to achieve a level of critical mass.  That's because you're going to do something with the list such as send a newsletter, sell products and services and make other offers.

Okay, time to do some math.  Don't worry, it's easy.  If you have one sale when you mail to 100 people, how many people do you have to have in order to have five sales?  That's why the size of your list is important. 

There are many ways to build a list.  The most obvious method is to simply have people opt-in to your list via your company Web site.  I discuss how to do this and the finer points of list-building in FastLearnerAudio4 for Entreprenuers.