In this article, we dive into the “why” and “how” of email list building, providing you with practical tips and strategies to maximize your marketing efforts.
What is a mailing list?
The heart and soul of email marketing is your mailing list – it’s one of your most valuable marketing assets. At first glance, it’s just a list of email addresses of everyone who has opted in to receive more information from you, whether it includes news, promotions, product launches or other updates.
But it’s actually much more than that. Ultimately, these are potential customers who are not only interested in what you have to say, but have agreed to hear more. And, as we’ll see later, this list can include just email addresses, or it can include more detailed information about each customer. As a result, you can segment your list based on a variety of criteria, and thus better target and test your messages—and improve sales conversions!
Why is it important to create a mailing list?
Before we dive into the practicalities and strategies, let’s understand why building an email list is important for growing your business, and why experts recommend it as one of the most important email marketing strategies .
1. Offer business opportunities with each subscriber
Email marketing fosters business growth at every step, from attracting first-time visitors to nurturing past customers. And every person on your mailing list is a gateway to new opportunities.
Find new clients
Not all of your website or brick-and-mortar store visitors are ready to make a purchase or take action on their first (or even second) visit. By engaging them with newsletters, educational content, and introductory offers, you have the opportunity to guide them from initial awareness to making their first purchase. Regular email communication keeps your brand top-of-mind, gradually builds connection and familiarity, and ultimately prompts the subscriber to take action when the right moment presents itself.
Get repeat sales through current customers
Existing customers, who have already experienced the quality of your products or services, are naturally more inclined to make repeat purchases, recommend your brand to others, and share their positive feedback. Their familiarity with your brand builds a foundation of trust that you can easily capitalize on.
By sending regular newsletters, exclusive discount offers, asking for their feedback, or simply keeping them up to date with your new products or services, you strengthen your connection with them. As a result, you can improve customer retention and encourage them to come back for more.
2. Lower cost and greater effectiveness than other forms of advertising
Email marketing doesn't require a significant investment to get started. Plus, it's typically substantially cheaper compared to other advertising channels, such as paid search or social media ads. Beyond that, the ROI for email marketing is exceptionally high, with over $36 generated for every $1 invested !
Another key point: relying on third-party platforms for advertising can be risky due to changes in algorithms, policies, or costs. Email marketing reduces this dependency, giving you more control over how and when you reach your audience, allowing you to increase effectiveness.
3. It allows you to precisely segment and target your subscribers with relevant content
Email marketing is a powerful tool in digital marketing, particularly given its ability to segment and target audiences with precision. Unlike other marketing channels, email marketing allows you to group your subscribers based on specific criteria, including their interests, previous purchases, demographics, and behavioral patterns.
Segmentation allows you to tailor your content to the unique preferences and needs of each group. This personalized approach is becoming increasingly important, especially as search engines and digital platforms move away from cookie-based tracking. In fact, the decrease in cookie tracking decreases the effectiveness of paid ads, making email marketing an even more attractive option.
What makes a high-quality mailing list?
Building an email list isn’t just about collecting as many emails as possible. On the contrary: valuable email lists prioritize quality over quantity. It may seem tempting to send emails to anyone, but doing so will not only dilute your messages for this less targeted audience, but these less interested subscribers are more likely to mark your emails as spam. The result? A poor sender reputation, and therefore fewer of your emails reaching the people who actually want to hear from you.
That being said, the important part is to make sure your list is full of interested users – people who actually want to hear from you. As such, here is a list of ways to make sure your list is made up of high-quality subscribers.
Clear registration (based on double consent)
What makes email marketing particularly effective is that your recipients have proactively expressed interest in receiving communications. That's why it's especially important to make sure your subscribers have consciously signed up to hear from you.
This is where clear opt-in comes into play, and the best way to do it is with double opt-in. That is, let’s say a subscriber signs up for your list for the first time via an online form; this is the first opt-in. The second opt-in comes in the form of a confirmation email through which they confirm that they are indeed interested.
This double opt-in affirms that subscribers really want to hear from you and also helps eliminate potential spam signups. This translates into a lower email bounce rate , fewer unsubscribes, and ultimately, more sales!
Similarly, to ensure that your list is full of legitimate and genuinely interested subscribers, it’s important to keep it up-to-date and fresh. To do this, it’s crucial to use an email marketing platform that flags old and/or bounced email addresses, and allows you to easily delete them. It’s also recommended to review your list every three to six months to remove inactive contacts, this includes those who haven’t opened your last few emails. Also, as mentioned above, double opt-in can help weed out invalid email addresses from the start.
Don't buy mailing lists
It can be tempting to buy email lists to increase your marketing reach. Bu france whatsapp number data purchased lists are often full of spam traps and include invalid or unused emails. Whether you're sending emails to users who haven't opted in, or to a bunch of potentially invalid emails, this can lead to much higher bounce rates. This in turn can affect your sender reputation, increasing the likelihood that your future emails will end up as spam – for all recipients, even those who really want to hear from you.
Remember: what makes your list especially successful is that it's full of subscribers who have actively opted in (even double-opted in) to hear what you have to say.
Easy to find unsubscribe option
It may seem counterintuitive to make it easy for subscribers to unsubscribe, but you actually want uninterested subscribers to be able to easily unsubscribe from your list. Not only does this keep your email content targeted to those who are actually interested, but especially important: it reduces the likelihood of your emails being flagged as spam. This can impact your sender reputation and ultimately your ability to successfully reach those who want to receive your emails. By allowing uninterested subscribers to unsubscribe, you'll benefit list quality, email deliverability, and conversions.
