Getting Started – How to build your email database

Learning how to grow your email list is one of the best things you can do for your business! Having a database you can contact and call on regularly should be part of your business communications strategy. Converting your social followers to members of your mailing list should be high on your “to-do list”. 

According to the Data & Marketing Association, 99% of consumers check their email daily. Similarly, Content Marketing Institute’s research shows that 40% of marketers consider email marketing vital to their content marketing success. 

The above statistics are a good indicator of why growing an email list is important for your business. If Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram were all to disappear tomorrow, would you be able to connect with your customers? Does the mere thought give you a stomach ulcer? If you’re concerned about this happening, then you need to read on. 

But how do you grow your email list legally? (Yes, legally is what we’re going for here because there are huge laws around how you capture and use people’s data, and there are massive fines in place if you’ve not undertaken this integral step). 

Here are a few ways you can collect and consolidate your data to have at your disposal, ready to send out amazing campaigns or offers. 

E-commerce sales data. Chances are if you have sold anything to anyone, you’ll have their contact details and information on file. Based on what and when they purchased, you can segment them into different categories and tags and then communicate to them when you have new stock, offers or items like they purchased on file. You can also get some cool data here and then send out promotions and offers based on country, suburb or state, meaning you tailor the communication best to what or where the recipient is from. 

Sift thru your inbox. Our inboxes are a gold mine, and if you have contacted people on a regular basis, you are able to, under the “inferred” clause on the ACMA’s website, send people communications and emails. On a regular basis add these customers into your database in the specific category or segment that will suit what types of communication you’ll send to them. Most email accounts will allow you to export your address book as a csv file which you can bulk upload into your email marketing platform. See! More contacts you are sitting on that you could be sending stuff out to. 

Website subscribe and contact forms. Your website is the perfect spot to instal a sign-up form encouraging people to opt into your newsletter. Having it as a pop up that appears the first time they visit your website (even pairing it with a 10% off discount for a first-time order) can be a great way to encourage a sign-up and also a purchase. Also, rather than popping your email address on your site for people to contact you (and then receive millions of spam emails and unsolicited emails), pop on a contact form that will capture the customer’s data and then send you a notification. This is a great ongoing option and way to top up customer data. 

Host a competition or giveaway. Everyone loves free stuff and hosting a competition or giveaway can be an epic way to grow your database. Partnering up with other businesses (where you partner with other businesses to leverage each other’s followings) is a fantastic joint venture and a way to promote some activity across your socials. Rather than do the boring “like this post, share this with your friends and give us your first-born child as tribute” (all things which are annoying and against FB and IG guidelines), create a competition where the entry port is via a website form, which feeds directly into your database. It will not only allow you to export the entries and see who entered, but you can also pop the runners up into another category and send them a discount or secondary offer or promo. The next time you’re running a competition, sale or giveaway, you can hit these people up first who are already going to be interested in this. 

There are loads of other great ways to build up your customer database, but here are a few to get you started and on your way. To find out all the other great ways to build up your mailing list, then what and how to communicate with them, be sure to join our next 8-week Email Marketing Masterclass commencing on Monday 11th of October. To find out more or to enrol read more here