Chase

Build A List

Email marketing  requires a list. List building requires collecting information and that requires a process. Fortunately, there are several proven techniques for collecting emails from your target prospects. Most of these techniques involve presenting visitors to your website with persuasive offer so they will share their email address with you. 

 As a best practice you should set monthly targets for the number of email addresses you’d like to add to your database where the focus is your target market. First step; Develop a plan that specifies the specifics for the people you want in your database and monthly targets. That might be age, gender, education or any items that describe the customer you want.

Best Practices

Your list building will depend on three main elements. First, you need to find a way to drive a large number of people to your website or landing page. This is by nature a numbers game. Second you need to present an offer they find useful so they will sign up. It must be relevant to their needs. Finally pay attention to the form elements on your page. It needs to be designed with conversion in mind. If it is “blab bla” then you can expect that type of response.

What is it you will need to collect? Some marketers start with a name and email address, while others collect other information so they can differentiate their list for targeting specific types of prospects. The less you ask for, the higher your completion rates will be. Make sure that what you offer prospects is compelling enough for them to choose to share their email information with you.

Here are 8 Steps to Building A Quality Email List 

1. Establish a monthly goal for the number of emails you’d like to collect each month. 
2. It’s important to focus your list-building efforts on your target  prospect so your campaign  will provide conversion rates that allow you to hit your lead generation and revenue targets. 
3. The most important item is to specify the data that you need to collect. The email address is most important and additional information requests can reduce the sign-up conversion rate. 
4. You don’t need to be a database expert to manage your email list. Just make sure that the technology you use is capable of storing the data you collect and will allow you to manipulate it into smaller lists according to some factor, without changing the master list. 
5. If you’re an established business, you likely already have some prospect and customer email addresses. In many cases, you can use these email addresses to seed your list.
6. You’ll need to offer people something in return for their contact information. common offers include “white papers”, “how-to-do papers” and online events. 
7. It is important to have an opt-in process so you do not violate any of the spam laws. Just putting a person on a list without permission could lead to litigation or worse. A double opt-in is the best practice because it confirms the signup.
8. A simple best practice when building your list is to send a thank you or welcome email to prospects after they sign up. Create an automatic triggered email to make this happen quickly. This allows you to start building a relationship with the prospect right away and sets the tone for future emails that they will receive from you.

Michael