A quality customer base is one of the three pillars of effective email marketing. But what if you do not have a list of subscribers or if you have a task to expand the existing list? Don’t panic. Our guide will answer the question of how to build your email list so that all your emails go to your inbox and not to spam. We will give practical advice on how to make sure that the money and time invested are not only justified but also bring the desired dividends.
What is a customer base for email newsletters?
Growth, relevance, and quality are what should be on par with your customer base for sending emails. But how to build an email list from scratch? This question torments both newbie marketers and experienced professionals who just yesterday got a job at a new company, as well as entrepreneurs who are puzzled by business promotion.
The first thing to remember when collecting your list of subscribers is that your method should be customer-centric. This means that you need to slightly push back the thirst for earnings. Your main goal is to set the creation of warm and trusting relationships with your subscribers. They must want to receive your content, they must trust you and be interested in your products. By focusing on this, building email lists will be really easy, fast, enjoyable, and, most importantly, effective.
What is the risk of buying a ready-made mailing list?
It is tempting to buy a ready-made customer base and not bother building a quality list for many young marketers and aspiring business people. Do not do this under any circumstances! We will give at least 3 reasons to abandon this venture:
- Mailings with zero result. We assure you that more than 90% of emails sent to purchased addresses will end up in spam. For this, there are special spam filters that will quickly calculate inactive and fake contacts, and according to statistics, this is exactly what email sellers trade. In addition, the so-called spam traps do not sleep, which, sensing something amiss, will block your account without any questions, adding you to the list of unreliable senders. And this is much worse because you cannot quickly restore your reputation. By the way, purchased users are not waiting for your emails. These random people don’t want to spend a second opening and reading campaigns they haven’t ordered. Most likely, you will receive a spam complaint in response. Yes, and you simply won’t be able to send your letters. Any mailing service will block them at the moderation stage.
- A big chance of getting a fine – sending letters to the purchased database is an illegal action, for which a fine is expected. Why? Yes, because the mailing of letters should take place exclusively with the consent of the recipient. There’s no such thing? Then don’t fight the moonlight.
- Restarting email marketing becomes more difficult. All email services without exception will immediately respond to triggered spam filters and spam traps. Your domain and IP-address will be blacklisted, which means that you will be suspected of spamming and fraud for a very long time, not allowing you to send a letter even to the hard-earned address.
You can and should build an email list differently. Do you wonder how? Then read on.
What do you need to know to build a quality subscriber list?
To make an email list, which in the future will become the basis for a successful email strategy, you need:
- collect contacts both online and offline. These can be forms of subscribing to a website in social networks, at a point of sale when registering for a loyalty program, by launching targeted advertising in a lead format (and make sure you add a field where the user agrees to the mailing);
- add a link to the privacy policy. This way your customers will feel calm because you agree not to transfer their personal data to third parties;
- use double opt-in. By using this function you can send an additional letter with a request to confirm the subscription (yes, the conversion of the subscription may decrease, but you will receive a high-quality address).
We recommend integrating email validation API by Proofy. With this cloud service, you will be able to automatically check the email addresses of users directly in your corporate system or on the website, thus receiving only conversion contacts. In addition, you will receive reliable information about the address even at the stage of user registration.
In what areas of business is the mailing list used?
It is generally believed that only direct selling stores need a mailing list. In fact, a client base is needed for any company, start-up, a business corporation that wants to both sell goods/services and promote their own brand. Email campaigns and mailing lists will also be required when building strong relationships with business partners, potential investors, suppliers. That is, well-thought-out email marketing with its client bases is needed by any business: both b2b and b2c.
Conclusions
Building a subscriber list from scratch will take a lot of work, but promise yourself never to buy a list like this, no matter how tempting it may seem. Focus on the client, understand their pains and needs, expand sources of new contacts and experiment, regularly check the quality of your list before each mailing using a free email checker.
Build your email list to make your email marketing successful and your business profitable! Good luck!
