Best Practices for your Email List
The absolute best way to develop your list is by an "opt-in" subscribe method that is either on your website or form that has specifically asks the person "Do you want to be on our email list?" and they check the box yes. In most cases, on your website, we will recommend a "double-opt-in" process in which...
1) a user completes the subscription form,
2) they receive a confirmation message requesting that they confirm their subscription, and finally
3) a welcome to the "list" email.
This ensures that the recipients that you have on your list WANT TO BE RECEIVING EMAILS from you. They are always given the option to "unsubscribe" with every message you send them.
What if I don't have a list like that but I do have a lot of contacts?
Trade shows, networking events and casual interactions with business prospects, and your huge list of contacts in your Outlook that you have built over the years are great ways to grow your e-mail program. However, you shouldn’t haphazardly add people you meet at these various functions to your e-mail list.
Export Your Outlook Contacts to a CSV File:
- Select File | Import and Export... from the menu.
- Make sure Export to a file is highlighted.
- Click Next >.
- Now make sure Comma Separated Values (Windows) is selected.
- Click Next > again.
- Highlight the Contacts folder.
- Click Next >.
- Use the Browse... button to specify a location and file name for the exported contacts. Something like "Outlook.csv" or "ol-contacts.csv" on your Desktop should work fine.
- Click Next > (once more).
- Now click Finish.
To best ensure that you are “on-boarding” recipients who actually want to receive e-mail communications, try one of these two approaches.
Opt-Out Approach: First there is the opt-out approach. This is the approach that most marketers take today. E-mail addresses from newly collected business cards are simply added to the e-mail list. The mind-set here is that you have talked with the individual so you have some sort of “pre-existing business relationship,” which is perceived as an expressed interest in receiving e-mail. That is not always an accurate assumption. * We do not recommend this for general import of a contact list that hasn't truly been maintained and contains random contacts. This is a sure way to get nailed as a "spammer".
Opt-In Approach: The other option is to proceed with an opt-in approach: You only add subscribers to your e-mail program that have actually asked to receive it. Your goal should be quality not just quantity. Your first communication following the trade show or event should be an actual invitation to join your e-mail program.
Building Your List...first steps:
If you are just building your list from your Outlook, Excel, etc. list of contacts this is our process:
1) Export your list into a format that we can import into our database (i.e., cvs, excel, db, etc). Try to export all contact fields so that personalized information that will be helpful in personalizing your email blasts will be available such as: first name, last name, company, etc. Studies show that click rates for emails that contain personalized information like "Dear Bella" have a much higher click rate.
2) Verify Emails - Archetype Marketing puts your list through an Advanced Email Verifier to detect bad email addresses and invalid domains and we try to remove "general business emails" that show as red flags for not being appropriate for your list prior to sending out any emails and you are given a final report. List hygiene plays a role in the delivery race. It is important to maintain a clean mailing list and remove bounced, undeliverable emails because a lot of ISP mail servers have been known to block a sender's email domain for repeated sending messages to non-existing email addresses.
3) Request Recipient to Opt-In - The first email to be sent should be a "Welcome" and notification email about your list and what types of emails that you plan on sending out. To ensure that we don't have any problems with being listed as Spammers, we suggest that you REQUEST the recipient opt-in to your list. This is preferred over requesting that they "opt-out" because of the record of subscription verification and the fact that you are truly building a list with integrity. These recipients WANT your information. We will work with you to develop the appropriate copy and design your default template to use in this email blast.
Your On Your Way to a Solid List:
Depending on the results and the number of subscribers, you may feel that "one more attempt" is necessary to once again request that recipients "opt-in" with a follow up email "We noticed that you haven't signed up for our Newsletter and we'd really hate to see you miss out on all our great information. Please click here to subscribe."....etc.
Otherwise, those that have opted in are ready for you to send them your emails!
