Email Address Lists, Mailing Lists & Bulk Email

Email is a very easy and effective way of staying in touch with existing customers and attracting new ones.

An email mailing list  is a collection of email addresses that are treated as a single unit. Any email sent to the list is sent to all the members on the list.

 It is usually assigned/created for a specific purpose like a newsletter, new product releases etc, and is also commonly known as a distribution list or distribution group, email address list.

Bulk email is simply the process of sending email to multiple recipients, the email can be a promotional email (email marketing) or customer related (e.g. product update).

Building Your Email  Lists

There are a variety of ways of collecting email addresses and it is important to stress that the emphasis should be on the quality of the addresses and not the quantity.

When people think of collecting email addresses they often think of websites and website forms.

However to collect email addresses  you don't need a website, and you certainly shouldn't be limiting yourself to just your website form.

It is also vary important that you tell the subscriber why you are asking for the address and what you will use it for.

For example a restaurant owner may ask for email addresses from customers who wish to be informed on special promotions/offers, a pub/bar could use email to inform customers about forthcoming events like bands, quiz nights etc.

Online Email Capture Methods

One of the most common ways of collecting address is via a website. This is usually done either using a website form or an email Autoresponder. However regardless of the method your visitors will require a reason to part with their email address, and so you need to offer something in exchange like:

• Offer free download (ebook,report etc)
• Free Competition
• Free Newsletter
• Free Software /tool
• Free Consultation
• Free White paper
• Coupon

See Using A Web Form to Capture Email Addresses

Offline Email Address Capture Methods

Although many small businesses have a website the website isn't always the main customer contact. Small local businesses like restaurants, hairdressers etc will meet their customers face to face and

• Ask for it when you talk to your customers either in person or on the phone. This strategy is particularly useful for any business that currently asks for a return phone number.
• Ask for it when making a sale. All online businesses do this, and there is no reason why a restaurant, for example, can't ask for an email address to use to send the customer special promotions.
• Use competitions and notify via winners email.

The method(s) you choose depends on your business. For example a computer consultant can offer a free report/white paper, a restaurant owner a discount coupon, a shop a special promotions newsletter.

Most Email list management systems allow you to manually add email addresses and to import them from .csv files obtained by exporting from other systems.

Address List Management

Email mailing list/lists often become critical company data and should be managed professionally. See List management.

• Email Mailing List Software and Solutions

• Using Outlook Express to Manage an Email Mailing List