How to Add Someone to Multiple Mailing Lists

Email marketing--an inexpensive route.

Putting new subscribers onto a mailing list is an issue every savvy marketer deals with daily. Lead generation helps interested parties stay informed about products and services. Lead segmentation can help fine tune marketing offers, for even greater sales and revenue potential.

Email lists are the easiest to maintain compared with postal mailing lists, and less expensive. You can add leads online, via Internet strategies, or offline, via real world strategies. By listening to your potential customers, you can create content for targeted lists, and add someone to multiple lists using the latest technologies.

Things You'll Need

• Lists of email addresses
• Lists of topics or products you plan to mail about
• Draft of an email marketing plan
• Text for your thank-you message, thanking them for registering
• Text for your follow-up messages
• Your own email account
• Email marketing service (optional)
• Text for your opt-in to the list message
• Text for your double opt-in to the list message (optional)

Instructions

Creating Your List And Marketing Plan

1. Gather a list of email addresses of people who are interested in your products and services. Collect the email addresses from a variety of sources. Sources include business cards; trade show promotions; guest books online or in your store; an email address capture page on your website; your regular email contact list; business contacts; and anyone else you need to keep up to date on your products and services Iike the press and trade groups.

2. Type, or copy and paste, the addresses you have collected online, into a word processing document such as Notepad, Wordpad or Word. Insert a comma between each email address. Save the list.

3. Draft an email marketing plan on your computer. Plan to offer one general newsletter concerned your entire company and product line. Brainstorm two to four other products, services or topics your company would like to become an expert in. Plan to create a newsletter for each, with a clear and interesting name and title.

4. Write the text for your thank-you email for the general newsletter. Welcome the person to the list, and tell them what to expect.

5. Write two or three more follow-up emails which will interest your new subscribers. Provide useful content for free, with links to relevant products you would like to sell.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each of the newsletters you plan to create.

Registering Someone for a Mailing List

1. Open your email program. This can be the email account that you use for all your daily business, or you may want to take a moment now to set up separate email addresses within your company email. You might also like to use a free email service such as Yahoo! or Hotmail.

   If you wish to use an email marketing service, set up your account, and the "Reply to" address for the first list you would like to create, the general email list.

2. Add all of your leads to the general email newsletter list. Click "New" to compose a new email and type your own email address into the "To:" field. Copy the list you created. Paste the list into the BCC box of your email client.

3. Copy the text of the welcome email you created for this general newsletter mailing list. Paste into the email box.

4. Write the subject line of your email. Make sure it is interesting and easy to understand.

5. Review the whole email to be sure it is correct. Click "Send" when you are satisfied.

Adding Someone to Multiple Lists

1. Once your first email has been sent, your email client should offer you the option of storing the email addresses in your address book. Accept this option, and create a group with a name appropriate to your general newsletter.

2. Review your list of names. Match their interests to the other lists you plan to offer, and repeat steps 1 through 6 in Section 2 above.

3. For each list, create a new group in your email, and add the names to each group.

   If you have chosen a commercial email marketing solution, create individual lists in the interface, and import the names from the first list. Edit the names as needed. Many programs will ask for a double opt-in, in which the user has to confirm their interest in your newsletter by clicking on a link. Write appropriate instructions and insert in the confirmation email.

4. Follow up on the welcome and confirmation emails with additional emails as needed for each mailing list you have created.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to mail on a regular schedule, and no less than once a week.

• For every promotional or "sales" email you send, mail two informative emails with free content but links to your product or site.

• For email marketing programs, you can line up your follow-up emails well in advance, and they will be mailed out automatically via an auto-responder. Email marketing programs can also help you track clicks, the open rate on your email and sales.

• Never send promotional emails to people who have not specifically requested to be put on your list/s. This can be considered SPAM and could result in a ban on your email accounts.

• Beware of your subject lines. They can set off SPAM filters without you ever knowing.

• Only about 50 percent of non-contact-list emails get to their destination. You may want to set up special landing pages on your site and provide links to them in your email to track your response rate quickly and easily.

References

• Lyris: Email Marketing Strategy Reports
• Email Marketing Reports: Introduction to Email Marketing

Resources

• Single Entry Point: Email List Strategies