How to Build an Email Database for a Mailing List
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 5:24 am
The success of an email newsletter largely depends on the quality of the contact base. In this article, I have collected all the information that will be relevant for collecting the base.
Building a contact base takes time. People who have no experience with mailings think that the best way to get addresses is to buy a ready-made base. “Why waste time if you can buy one? It’s easier,” they think. This is a misconception, my friends! Easier does not mean better.
Buying a ready-made base is a way to fail your mailing. You can be complained about to the FAS . You risk falling into a spam trap, ruining the sender's reputation, which will lead to getting blacklisted and blocking the entire mailing. Complaints about spam and partial spam placement are the least terrible outcome.
If you still think that buying a database is better, keep in mind that sending a mailing without the recipient's consent is a violation of the law on the protection of personal data. Spoiler: the administrative fine can reach 500 thousand rubles. In addition, an advertising mailing sent without the recipient's consent is a violation according to paragraph 1 of Article 18 of the Federal Law "On Advertising" .
So, the idea of buying a base is not so good, to be honest)
What is an email database for?
For sending letters to customers: potential or current. Email newsletters are most useful for the following purposes:
Customer retention. This is the key goal of newsletters. Email newsletters help to extend the time of customer interaction with the brand by maintaining constant contact and providing useful materials. This builds customer trust and promotes their long-term loyalty to the company.
Sales. Email marketing directs customers to take targeted actions, such as purchasing on your website, subscribing to services, or downloading content. This helps convert interested customers into actual buyers.
Warming up the audience. With the help of mailings, an emotional connection with the company's product or service is formed. The task is to increase the client's interest and awaken their desire to purchase the product, increasing trust in the brand.
Customer education and feedback collection. Newsletters can include educational materials, tips on how to use the product, and requests for feedback. Feedback should be collected regularly. This is important for understanding what customers like and what can be improved in the product.
Announcing news and events. Email newsletters inform customers about new products, special offers, promotions and other important company news. This helps to retain customer interest.
Increasing customer loyalty. Regular and personalized mailings help to form a loyal attitude of customers to the brand. For this purpose, holiday greetings and personal offers are sent, for example.
Customer reactivation. With the help of a newsletter, you can remind customers who have not interacted with the brand for a long time, offering them something attractive to return.
The main goal of the mailing is customer retention. It is important to create conditions for the client to return. Effective communication via email allows you to reach the client directly and in a personalized manner.
Why Buying an Email List Is a Bad Option
There's reason to believe that buying an email list for your newsletter is a terrible idea. Here's why:
Quality of addresses. Databases purchased online contain outdated or completely invalid addresses. You risk wasting money on a mailing that will not even reach the recipient. But that is not the worst thing. You risk falling into a spam trap - sending a mailing to a spam address and ending up in the mail service block. As a result: a damaged reputation of the sender and a clear blocking of all mailings.
Violation of the law. As I already noted at the beginning, sending a mailing without the recipient's consent is a violation of the law on the protection of personal data . In addition, an advertising mailing sent without the recipient's consent is a violation according to paragraph 1 of Article 18 of the Federal Law "On Advertising" . For such violations, you can receive a complaint to the FAS and an administrative fine of up to 500 thousand rubles.
Violation of the recipient's personal boundaries. Email is a personal space. Receiving unwanted emails can be irritating, causing emails to be sent to Spam. This is how users most often react to mailings they received without consent.
The opposite situation is also possible: the user received a seemingly unnecessary letter, but in the end it interested him. But the probability of such a hit in the target audience when buying an address base is low. Of course, if the content is useful, the user will not care so much whether he subscribed to the mailing list or received it by accident. But if the opposite is true, there is a risk of receiving a complaint. The question is about the benefit for the audience, and when buying unknown bases, it is difficult to know who this audience is.
Reputational risks. Most users mark emails from unknown maldives business email list recipients as "Spam". The more complaints from recipients, the worse your reputation. Mail services monitor spam and can blacklist your domain. Then the emails will automatically end up in the "Spam" folder and will not reach the recipients.
In short, if you want effective mailings, then buying a ready-made base is not your option. Because the effectiveness of the mailing depends on how useful it is for the recipients. And to know this, you need to collect the base yourself and understand the interests of the audience =)
How to Build a Database: 10 Working Methods
Now let's look at everything in practice. Good marketing is targeted at the target audience. You must clearly know who your content is for, who your user is and what they want. This is the basis of a successful marketing campaign. Define your target audience, and then develop a promotion strategy. The criterion for the success of your strategy is customer feedback and statistics. Look at the analytics, numbers are important =) Special services for automating mailings will help with this. They provide detailed reporting.
Collect email addresses, phone numbers and other contact data – whatever you need. Don’t forget to draw up a user agreement and privacy policy. This will make users feel more confident. The purpose of processing their personal data should be transparent to the user.
Here are 10 ways to help you build a relevant and high-quality base.
1. Website or landing page with a subscription form. Place a great offer on your website with a form for collecting email addresses. Even if you think you only need your customers' phone numbers, believe me - some customers prefer to receive only email newsletters. You should definitely take this into account.
Landing page example
Landing page example
2. Lead magnets . Leads are potential customers who filled out a form with their data. They have heard something about your product, but are not yet interested enough in it. Your task is to attract them with content that is so useful that they leave their contacts in order to receive it. The benefit can be in the form of a checklist, a template, a closed video lesson or instructions. This is a lead magnet, it should:
be free,
easy to obtain,
solve one specific problem for your target audience.
Lead magnet is the best hook for attracting customers. It works more effectively on pop-up windows that appear on the site after a certain time or user action.
Lead magnet example
Lead magnet example
3. Website pop-up. Place a subscription form on your website. This can be a pop-up window or a visible form on the page.
Example of a collecting pop-up
Example of a collecting pop-up
4. Messengers. Post a mini-version of useful content in Telegram channels or other messengers and offer to subscribe to an email newsletter to get full access.
5. Promotions and contests. Launch promotions or contests where participants leave their contacts to participate.
6. Online chats. Offer to subscribe to your newsletter while communicating with visitors via online chat.
7. Rewards. Offering a discount is not the most effective way, although it is the most obvious. Not everyone needs discounts, for some consumers it is a sign of low quality: like, "if it were good, they wouldn't give a discount, just to sell." A discount devalues the product. But focus on the characteristics of your target audience, maybe this will be a working option for you.
The best option is to offer a reward in the form of benefit. Free training materials, access to a book, etc. Your target audience will determine the benefit for themselves, you just need to offer it.
8. Social networks. Launch targeted advertising on social networks with a call to subscribe to the newsletter. Targeted advertising is that which is shown to a specific audience depending on gender, age, city and other parameters.
9. Partners. Collaborate with other companies. Send out mutual mailings. It is important that your target audiences match. It is even more important to be sure that the partner’s base is high-quality. This way, you can get new subscribers.
10. Collaborations with bloggers/influencers. Advertising integrations in blogs work really well. Just go and find a blogger with your target audience. Nowadays, there are blogs about almost everything. When choosing a blogger for collaboration, look at the audience activity, not its size. A blog with 1,000 subscribers, of which 500 are active every day, is much more valuable than one with 50,000, of which only 1,000 are active. Do you understand the percentage ratio? Small blogs often have a very loyal audience that listens, trusts, and buys based on recommendations.
What you need to know when starting a database collection
Let's sum it up. To collect a quality base and subsequently launch an effective mailing, it is important:
Obtain consent to data processing. The user must give consent to receive the newsletter. This is important both from the point of view of data protection legislation and your reputation.
Monitor the quality of contacts. Collect current and relevant contacts. Remember: it is better to have fewer addresses, but high-quality ones, than more, but inactive or incorrect ones.
Create interesting content. Analyze the requests of your target audience. Create content that will attract the right audience.
Analyze and optimize. Monitor metrics and optimize content. If your newsletter is rarely subscribed to, consider whether it is not engaging.
The methods for collecting a database may differ. It all depends on your business. Choose the one that is optimal. Mix the methods and track the statistics to understand what works best for your audience.
Building a contact base takes time. People who have no experience with mailings think that the best way to get addresses is to buy a ready-made base. “Why waste time if you can buy one? It’s easier,” they think. This is a misconception, my friends! Easier does not mean better.
Buying a ready-made base is a way to fail your mailing. You can be complained about to the FAS . You risk falling into a spam trap, ruining the sender's reputation, which will lead to getting blacklisted and blocking the entire mailing. Complaints about spam and partial spam placement are the least terrible outcome.
If you still think that buying a database is better, keep in mind that sending a mailing without the recipient's consent is a violation of the law on the protection of personal data. Spoiler: the administrative fine can reach 500 thousand rubles. In addition, an advertising mailing sent without the recipient's consent is a violation according to paragraph 1 of Article 18 of the Federal Law "On Advertising" .
So, the idea of buying a base is not so good, to be honest)
What is an email database for?
For sending letters to customers: potential or current. Email newsletters are most useful for the following purposes:
Customer retention. This is the key goal of newsletters. Email newsletters help to extend the time of customer interaction with the brand by maintaining constant contact and providing useful materials. This builds customer trust and promotes their long-term loyalty to the company.
Sales. Email marketing directs customers to take targeted actions, such as purchasing on your website, subscribing to services, or downloading content. This helps convert interested customers into actual buyers.
Warming up the audience. With the help of mailings, an emotional connection with the company's product or service is formed. The task is to increase the client's interest and awaken their desire to purchase the product, increasing trust in the brand.
Customer education and feedback collection. Newsletters can include educational materials, tips on how to use the product, and requests for feedback. Feedback should be collected regularly. This is important for understanding what customers like and what can be improved in the product.
Announcing news and events. Email newsletters inform customers about new products, special offers, promotions and other important company news. This helps to retain customer interest.
Increasing customer loyalty. Regular and personalized mailings help to form a loyal attitude of customers to the brand. For this purpose, holiday greetings and personal offers are sent, for example.
Customer reactivation. With the help of a newsletter, you can remind customers who have not interacted with the brand for a long time, offering them something attractive to return.
The main goal of the mailing is customer retention. It is important to create conditions for the client to return. Effective communication via email allows you to reach the client directly and in a personalized manner.
Why Buying an Email List Is a Bad Option
There's reason to believe that buying an email list for your newsletter is a terrible idea. Here's why:
Quality of addresses. Databases purchased online contain outdated or completely invalid addresses. You risk wasting money on a mailing that will not even reach the recipient. But that is not the worst thing. You risk falling into a spam trap - sending a mailing to a spam address and ending up in the mail service block. As a result: a damaged reputation of the sender and a clear blocking of all mailings.
Violation of the law. As I already noted at the beginning, sending a mailing without the recipient's consent is a violation of the law on the protection of personal data . In addition, an advertising mailing sent without the recipient's consent is a violation according to paragraph 1 of Article 18 of the Federal Law "On Advertising" . For such violations, you can receive a complaint to the FAS and an administrative fine of up to 500 thousand rubles.
Violation of the recipient's personal boundaries. Email is a personal space. Receiving unwanted emails can be irritating, causing emails to be sent to Spam. This is how users most often react to mailings they received without consent.
The opposite situation is also possible: the user received a seemingly unnecessary letter, but in the end it interested him. But the probability of such a hit in the target audience when buying an address base is low. Of course, if the content is useful, the user will not care so much whether he subscribed to the mailing list or received it by accident. But if the opposite is true, there is a risk of receiving a complaint. The question is about the benefit for the audience, and when buying unknown bases, it is difficult to know who this audience is.
Reputational risks. Most users mark emails from unknown maldives business email list recipients as "Spam". The more complaints from recipients, the worse your reputation. Mail services monitor spam and can blacklist your domain. Then the emails will automatically end up in the "Spam" folder and will not reach the recipients.
In short, if you want effective mailings, then buying a ready-made base is not your option. Because the effectiveness of the mailing depends on how useful it is for the recipients. And to know this, you need to collect the base yourself and understand the interests of the audience =)
How to Build a Database: 10 Working Methods
Now let's look at everything in practice. Good marketing is targeted at the target audience. You must clearly know who your content is for, who your user is and what they want. This is the basis of a successful marketing campaign. Define your target audience, and then develop a promotion strategy. The criterion for the success of your strategy is customer feedback and statistics. Look at the analytics, numbers are important =) Special services for automating mailings will help with this. They provide detailed reporting.
Collect email addresses, phone numbers and other contact data – whatever you need. Don’t forget to draw up a user agreement and privacy policy. This will make users feel more confident. The purpose of processing their personal data should be transparent to the user.
Here are 10 ways to help you build a relevant and high-quality base.
1. Website or landing page with a subscription form. Place a great offer on your website with a form for collecting email addresses. Even if you think you only need your customers' phone numbers, believe me - some customers prefer to receive only email newsletters. You should definitely take this into account.
Landing page example
Landing page example
2. Lead magnets . Leads are potential customers who filled out a form with their data. They have heard something about your product, but are not yet interested enough in it. Your task is to attract them with content that is so useful that they leave their contacts in order to receive it. The benefit can be in the form of a checklist, a template, a closed video lesson or instructions. This is a lead magnet, it should:
be free,
easy to obtain,
solve one specific problem for your target audience.
Lead magnet is the best hook for attracting customers. It works more effectively on pop-up windows that appear on the site after a certain time or user action.
Lead magnet example
Lead magnet example
3. Website pop-up. Place a subscription form on your website. This can be a pop-up window or a visible form on the page.
Example of a collecting pop-up
Example of a collecting pop-up
4. Messengers. Post a mini-version of useful content in Telegram channels or other messengers and offer to subscribe to an email newsletter to get full access.
5. Promotions and contests. Launch promotions or contests where participants leave their contacts to participate.
6. Online chats. Offer to subscribe to your newsletter while communicating with visitors via online chat.
7. Rewards. Offering a discount is not the most effective way, although it is the most obvious. Not everyone needs discounts, for some consumers it is a sign of low quality: like, "if it were good, they wouldn't give a discount, just to sell." A discount devalues the product. But focus on the characteristics of your target audience, maybe this will be a working option for you.
The best option is to offer a reward in the form of benefit. Free training materials, access to a book, etc. Your target audience will determine the benefit for themselves, you just need to offer it.
8. Social networks. Launch targeted advertising on social networks with a call to subscribe to the newsletter. Targeted advertising is that which is shown to a specific audience depending on gender, age, city and other parameters.
9. Partners. Collaborate with other companies. Send out mutual mailings. It is important that your target audiences match. It is even more important to be sure that the partner’s base is high-quality. This way, you can get new subscribers.
10. Collaborations with bloggers/influencers. Advertising integrations in blogs work really well. Just go and find a blogger with your target audience. Nowadays, there are blogs about almost everything. When choosing a blogger for collaboration, look at the audience activity, not its size. A blog with 1,000 subscribers, of which 500 are active every day, is much more valuable than one with 50,000, of which only 1,000 are active. Do you understand the percentage ratio? Small blogs often have a very loyal audience that listens, trusts, and buys based on recommendations.
What you need to know when starting a database collection
Let's sum it up. To collect a quality base and subsequently launch an effective mailing, it is important:
Obtain consent to data processing. The user must give consent to receive the newsletter. This is important both from the point of view of data protection legislation and your reputation.
Monitor the quality of contacts. Collect current and relevant contacts. Remember: it is better to have fewer addresses, but high-quality ones, than more, but inactive or incorrect ones.
Create interesting content. Analyze the requests of your target audience. Create content that will attract the right audience.
Analyze and optimize. Monitor metrics and optimize content. If your newsletter is rarely subscribed to, consider whether it is not engaging.
The methods for collecting a database may differ. It all depends on your business. Choose the one that is optimal. Mix the methods and track the statistics to understand what works best for your audience.