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Nick
Pauley,
managing
director
of
Shortburst
gives
guidance
on
email
list
building.
Firm
foundations
for
email
lists
Before
you
even
think
about
designing
your
first enewsletter
you
will
be
considering
who
is
going
to
be
on
the
email
list.
You
probably
have
an
existing
list,
but
how
are
you
going
build
this
to
improve
the
results
of
your
campaigns
and
grow
your
audience?
I am
not
going
to
concentrate
here
on
the
legalities
but
do
make
sure
you
read
and
understand
all
the
latest
legislation
first.
You
won’t
want
to
ruin
you
reputation
by
doing
something
which
is
illegal
or
annoying.
Make
sure
that
everyone
you
send
your
newsletter
to
is
happy
to
receive
it
and
that
they
have
actively
‘opted
in’.
Any
other
approach
–
whether
legal
or
not
– is
just
bad
manners
and
won’t
do
you
any
good
in
the
long
term.
Building
lists
of
potential
recipients
and
collecting
their
email
addresses
is
something
which
should
be
at
the
centre
of
what
you
do
all
day
and
every
day
–
whatever
organisation
you
represent.
There
are
lots
of
methods
and
not
all
these
ideas
will
be
relevant
to
you
however
many
can
be
adapted
to
be
appropriate
to
your
circumstances.
The
most
obvious
place
to
collect
email
addresses
is
on
your
web
site.
Invite
people
to
sign
up
to
receive
your
newsletter
and
give
them
a
taste
of
what
they
will
receive.
Maximise
this
opportunity
by
putting
your
sign-up
invitation
high
up,
on
every
single
page.
In
your
invitation
say
that
you’ll
send
just
one
newsletter
and
they
can
unsubscribe
if
they
don’t
like
it.
Make
the
offer
so
reassuring
that
there
can
be
no
objection
and
refer
them
to
your
privacy
policy.
If
it
is
appropriate,
have
a
‘sign
off’
window
which
pops
up
when
a
visitor
leaves
your
web
site,
inviting
them
to
sign
up
to
the
newsletter.
Remember
to
include
back
issues
of
your
newsletters
in
an
archive
section
on
your
web
site
so
that
other
sites
can
link
to
them.
Make
archive
material
easy
to
find
and
include
a
sign-up
invitation
there
too.
Incentives
-
like
a
special
offer
or a
competition
-
are
the
sorts
of
hooks
which
cause
people
to
offer
their
email
address.
Think
of
something
that
you
can
give
away,
free,
in
exchange
for
the
information.
It’s
never
wise
to
make
an
email
sign-up
a
condition
of
obtaining
information
from
your
web
site,
unless
of
course
you
run
a
subscription
service.
At
least
allow
a
visitor
to
glean
some
knowledge
from
your
site,
to
enter,
to
explore
it
thoroughly
before
you
hit
them
with
a
sign
up
box
that
enables
navigation.
However
such
forced
sign-ups
do
have
their
own
problems.
Many
people
use
free
email
for
these
using
email
accounts
which
they
rarely
view.
So
consider
including
in
such
sign
up
procedures
the
necessity
for
a
further
action
on
the
part
of
the
visitor,
so
they
are
compelled
to
give
a
valid
and
current
email
address.
Invite
newsletter
recipients
to
recommend
a
friend
either
by
forwarding
the
newsletter
or
by
providing
their
friend’s
email
address.
You
might
give
a
special
money-off
voucher
for
those
whose
friends
subsequently
agree
to
receive
the
newsletter.
One
of
the
most
obvious
ways
to
publicise
your
newsletter
is
to
use
the
signature
feature
in
your
day-to-day
emails
and
put
a
link
there
to
your
sign-up
page.
Identify
other
newsletters
which
may
complement
yours
and
offer
a
reciprocal
arrangement
where
each
newsletter
includes
a
link
to a
sign-up
invitation
to
the
other
one.
Much
is
being
written
about
web2
–
that’s
the
new
generation
of
internet
communication
which
relies
far
more
on
users
contributing
their
own
knowledge
to
the
world
wide
web.
Web
site
visitors
are
getting
used
to
playing
an
active
internet
role
so
invite
participation
to
your
web
site
by
asking
for
contributions
or
comment.
This
is a
great
way
to
build
your
on-line
community
but
also
to
build
your
mailing
list.
Make
submission
of a
valid
email
address
a
condition
for
submitting
content.
Not
all
list
building
needs
to
take
place
online.
We
sometimes
forget
those
tried
and
tested
marketing
methods
that
existed
before
the
internet
and
are
still
most
persuasive.
There
are
meetings
you
may
go
to,
seminars
or
perhaps
exhibitions
and
it’s
quite
acceptable
to
ask
for
a
business
card
and
say
that
in
return
you
will
send
your
enewsletter.
At
events
try
to
collect
every
delegate’s
email
address
for
this
purpose.
You
can
use
direct
mail
for
publicity
.
When
combined
with
a
competition
or
special
offer
this
tactic
can
be
very
effective
in
both
building
your
list
but
also
driving
traffic
to
you
web
site.
Invite
new
recipients
in
every
piece
of
promotional
literature
that
you
produce,
on
exhibition
banners
and
even
perhaps,
on
your
invoices
or
notepaper.
Of
course
you
should
always
ask
new
and
potential
customers
when
you
call
them
if
they
would
like
to
be
included
in
your
mailing
list
as
well
as
inviting
sign-ups
on
your
voicemail
and
any
telephone
holding
messages.
Straight
advertising
too
may
provide
a
rich
harvest
of
email
addresses
so
try
all
the
relevant
media
but
also
consider
other
more
inventive
ways,
eg:
on
vehicles
or
on
billboards.
Above
all,
think
constantly
about
building
your
lists
and
don’t
miss
any
opportunity,
however
small,
to
invite
people
to
sign
up
to
receive
your
newsletters.
It’s
this
data
which
will
form
your
audience
and
will
shape
the
content,
frequency
and
effectiveness
of
your
future
online
campaigns. |
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