Email Marketing - Where to get the right list?

I have a new section on my gardening site - a gardening directory - and I am interested in marketing to the components of this directory:

Arborists
Landscape Architects
Gardening Websites
etc etc

What I am interested in finding out is where to obtain email lists or how best to approach these targeted groups for inclusion in the directory? Mostly I do NOT want to spam these folks, but REACH them.

EZines seemed like a good idea - advertise in other peoples' ezines - until I realized I wasn't finding the right places.

Curious how folks who have never bothered with email marketing take the plunge? My general site traffic is gardeners and the target audience for the the directory (for submitting to it) is those who would also serve my site audience. Any tips would be appreciated!

 

Do you already have an autoresponder like Aweber?

 

I build my own lists then I approach others with lists similar to mine and do an ad swap. Works for me. Normally, when approaching others, it's best to have something to give them back, money can be an option but a lot of established lists will not advertise you for money...List building is a process and can take quite a bit of time.

Best,

Ana

 

The visitors to my site are currently seeking gardening information, products and services. The people to market the directory to are providers of said products and services. So my email list is really not likely to capture many sign-ups. I was hoping to shortcut this process, but if I have to build site content to gather traffic for providers then I suppose I will have to do that.

 

There really isn't a shortcut way but if you find one let me know.

 

Approach other with list of emails that correspond to your niche. A good resource would be online Groups with a good number of members.