ONE OF THE best ways you can make more sales and profits is to build a list of high-quality leads and customers that you can communicate with via email.

Email has a very high conversion rate and, as you build your list by providing content subscribers will find useful, relevant and interesting, you can keep pitching your products or services.

Even if you aren’t selling any products, you should still collect emails so you can get people back to your website on a continual basis. If you have a blog, for example, you can send an email to your list telling that you’ve published a new post. That will help to boost your website traffic.

Build your email list by creating an irresistible offer

Create an offer that you know will appeal to your prospective customers. This could be content such as a downloadable PDF report or a template, a discount code or voucher, or a free software trial. Whatever it is you offer, it must be gated. That means your prospective customers have to give you their email address in exchange for the offer.

Create a landing page with the gated offer

Run a PPC advertising campaign or a YouTube advertising campaign to promote your free offer. The link will take prospective customers to your landing page.

Promote your offer via your social media channels as well as on your website and blog. Promote your gated assets by blogging about topics that are closely related to the asset you’ve created. Place a CTA that leads readers to the landing page.

You could also run a contest on social media with a link to a landing page. Contestants must provide their email address to enter the contest. Make sure your prizes are relevant to what your company does and what your audience needs.

Email your existing customers and ask them to forward or share your emails with colleagues or friends they think will benefit from the offer. Include CTAs in your emails that make sharing an obvious choice for recipients.

Data buying or renting

A quicker way to build an email subscriber list is to buy or rent one from a professional list broker.

A list supplier should tell you the source of the data, including how it was collated, cleaned and kept up to date. Reputable data suppliers should tell you exactly how and from where the list you are considering was sourced.

At dorweb of Weymouth we use free data from Companies House to check for company details, any newly formed business is the perfect customer for a marketing agency. Check out Michrome – they’ll send you a monthly alert of new businesses formed in your postcode area.

Is the list compliant?

The UK and EU have stringent regulations and laws governing the collection of data. The responsibility is yours so make sure that the list is legally compliant.

It must be:

  • Fairly and lawfully processed
  • Accurate and up-to-date
  • Processed in line with the data subject’s rights
  • Legally checked against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

Specific consent must be held for the type of marketing you intend to use it for. Check out our Blog Article on GDPR (The new general data protection regulation) that came in to force May 2018.

Can you use your own criteria for the list selection?

It’s pointless buying a list that doesn’t relate to your target audience. Your list should offer criteria such as age, gender and location.

You may be able to refine it by:

  • Hobbies
  • Interests
  • Family size

For B2B, you should be able to select by:

  • Company size
  • Turnover
  • Department
  • Job Title

If the list you are considering cannot be targeted in this way, then it’s probably not going to be worth using.

Understand your business

A list vendor should also be willing to take the time to understand your business, goals, products or services and audience.

Channel usage

Mailing lists that are up-to-date and maintained to be effective will always be sold based on the channel usage.

Industry accreditations

Ensure the organisation selling the data has the appropriate industry accreditations for supplying marketing data:

  • Is it a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) which sets the standard for agencies, list brokers, mailing houses and companies?
  • Is it authorised through the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)? The independent ICO works in the public interest to protect data privacy and to uphold information rights in the UK.

What value can the supplier add?

A good list provider should be able to provide more in-depth data marketing and insight services.

Cheap is not always good

If a broker offers a price that is way lower than other agencies, be careful. It might not deliver the kind of quality you need.