Mailing lists

Mailing lists are simply collections of email addresses for those who have bought from you in the past, or who may do so in the future. As they say in Direct Marketing, 'the money is in the list'. In other words, it is a real asset - something of great potential worth. Whatever you sell, if you have a website, you can probably use one of these. So long as you are providing a decent product/service, a past customer is more likely to buy from you again, or even tell others about you.

But it can be a real pain to maintain mailing lists manually - and bulk mailings are likely to get clobbered at some point by anti-spam software. The solution to both problems is to use a professional automated process to handle the collection of emails, and bulk transmission of messages (I use Aweber). That way, you will have an instant marketplace that be contacted with a single message. But please remember that you have been given these names as a privilege. Abuse this trust by sending out pointless, irrelevant, time-wasting mails and the 'unsubscribe' option will be used freely. And rightly so.

Don't fake this, think of the list as friends. Only send out facts they can use, or genuine special offers that are not generally available. How do you build up mailing lists? Well, obviously a website or past products help establish if you have anything worthwhile to offer. I used to follow the convention of dangling a bundle of goodies that could only be downloaded after someone has signed up to the list, but I moved away from this idea - far too 'needy'. Some simply signed up and then immediately removed themselves. I could hardly blame them, having done the same to others in the past!

Better perhaps to make everything available right from the start. Yes, you'll end up with fewer names this way, but they'll all be genuine rather than just collectors of freebies. If anyone then does go on the list I'm fairly sure they really are interested to hear from me in the future. This makes me think harder about what to send out, and what would just be a waste of time. It also makes me more inclined be more generous with offers - you would, for a friend, wouldn't you?

Think how a list could help you. As always, if you get stuck just drop me a line, and if you want me to set up and manage a list on your behalf, that is do-able as well.

And you'll need to have a decent web site, with a sign-up option set up before you even start thinking about setting up mailing lists.