If you have already read it, then this is just a reminder on how important it is to build relationships, because marketing today is all about having meaningful conversations. Relationship marketing tells us that marketers must first build strong relationships with customers instead of just focusing on one time transactions, and a huge part of building relationships is having meaningful conversations. Before the email list building process, a marketer or business owner should have meaningful conversations with prospects. Often, the focus is just on acquiring a prospect's contact information for email marketing list building, and the mistake with that is this: bombarding people email list with cold, meaningless marketing messages just to get them to sign up for newsletters or buy a product does not work! Being talked to, preached at, or lectured to by those trying to win a business is generally perceived as annoying, not persuasive. If you want to win business and eventually get the person to become a part of your business email list, take the time to talk to them, ask about their needs, wishes, and wants. Make it easy and comfortable for you to share in what they think. In short, if you really want new business (and a bigger email contact list, have a conversation. Conversational marketing is all about participating in conversations about your products in blogs, forums, review sites and wikis.