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Marketing professionals will tell you: the money is in the list. A strong list of email addresses from people who both have the money to buy from you and have an interest in what you sell is worth its weight in gold. But how do you build that list?

Buying lists can be hit or miss—and it’s usually a miss. It’s always most effective to build the list yourself. But that takes some strategy.

Here are some ideas for getting people to opt into your email marketing.

Write something they want to read, and ask for an email address before they can download it. This is a form of content marketing that works when your product is complicated and involves a lot of research to buy—and that can include some forms of commercial insurance. If that’s what you sell, consider writing a report or white paper that addresses an urgent question your prospects often have. Give it for free, but ask for contact information first. Those who give it to you will be demonstrating a clear interest.

Consider why your customers would want to sign up for your messages. Are these just marketing messages? Then chances are people won’t sign up. Nobody wants more advertising in their inboxes.

However, if your email messages offer something of value—such as educational content about insurance, or ways to save money on their insurance—then people are much more likely to sign up voluntarily. Consider developing an email newsletter that’s mostly informational, with occasional marketing messages.

Ask for subscriptions on your home page and other high-traffic pages. Better yet, make the opt-in visible on every page of your website. Use a color that makes the button stand out.

Put the subscription link in all your emails. Make it part of your email signature. Put it at the bottom of all the emails you send, even the automatic ones. Not everyone who gets your emails will sign up, but some people will.

Build a sign-in landing page and link to it. If your newsletter doesn’t have its own dedicated landing page on your website, it should. Write copy that expresses the benefits of signing up—the valuable information and tips subscribers receive—and link to it in all your promotional material. Put the link on your social media profiles as well.

Once you start sending out messages, you can also track who is opening them and clicking through on links—and figure out what’s working and what isn’t. You can also get in touch with subscribers who never open your emails and try to re-engage. Over time, you can strengthen the performance of your list—and make it pay off.