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How to Create an Email Marketing List – Advice Straight From Kindergarten

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The perfect mailing list is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of your marketing efforts. But consider this; is sending an email to an uninterested audience, invalid email addresses, or businesses who have never heard of you before any better than shouting into the void?

It’s actually worse – it’s not helping, and it’s costing you money!

You need to create a list of people to send your email marketing efforts to. But how do you determine who to put on your list, and who to leave off? Use this advice, so simple it could’ve come straight from the mouths of babes.

  1. Stranger Danger.
    It’s true, most of the best advice we learn comes from kindergarten. For instance, if you don’t know someone, don’t speak to them. This holds true in staffing. People most likely will not open, click on, or answer to an email address they have never seen before. Don’t use an email newsletter as a cold call.
  1. Don’t Take Something That Isn’t Yours.
    THE WORST thing you can do for your marketing list is to BUY contacts. Sure, they are available, and it might seem like the easiest tactic to pay a few dollars to get a database of people in your region and industry, but that fee pales in comparison to the money you could pay for violating CAN-SPAM laws (How does paying $16,000 per email sound?). Grow your own list, and you’ll not only have better prospects, but you won’t be at risk of violating the law.
  1. Show and Tell.
    When you are looking to build a list, or reconnect with older contacts, use the content from your email marketing efforts. That DOES NOT mean you should opt them in for your newsletter, but it could mean forwarding an article that applies to their business, or sharing a link through social media that you think they would find interesting, and then offering to add them to your mailing list if they like the content.
  1. Make New Friends, But Keep the Old.
    Keeping an ongoing database of people you do business with, have done business with, and want to do business with is the best starting point for creating an email marketing list. It is easy to pull contacts out of for any type of mailing, whether it’s seasonal, informative, or just to stay top-of-mind, and it provides you with all the information you need to decide whether someone is qualified to receive your mailing. Always add new people to your list, and keep a column to determine whether they have opted into your mailing list or not.

 

Follow these tips, and you’ll be able to create an email marketing list that not only works, but is safe from CAN-SPAM violations. And if you need more help creating a list, contact one of our dedicated marketing specialists today!

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