A mailing list is essential to launch a mailing campaign. Very profitable, this marketing technique usually generates more conversions than social networks. In addition, this means of communication makes it possible toreach your prospect directly.
There email distribution list has many other advantages: security, traceability, targeting, traffic source. Creating a mailing list is however very time consuming. This tool requires a certain personal investment to bear fruit. What is a mailing list and what are its purposes? What are the advantages ? We take stock.
Mailing list: what is it?
Mailing list: definition
A mailing list (in French “list of emails”) is a list composed ofemail addresses of people potentially interested in your field of activity. It is used to promote your business to a targeted audience through prospecting emailsof a newsletter, promotional offers, etc. Depending on the reputation of the company, a mailing list can contain from a few tens to hundreds of thousands of contacts. A mailing list does not only include names and email addresses prospects. It also provides information on:
- Their field of activity;
- The type of company in which they work;
- The level of responsibility of prospects;
- Their age range;
- Their geographical area;
- Their interests, etc.
These data are essential for segment your mailing list. Create some standard profiles of your prospects makes it possible to offer personalized content to each category of recipient.
To have : How to make a mailing?
The purposes of a contact list
Managing a contact list can have several marketing objectives :
- Find new customers : prospecting by email remains an effective canvassing method with multiple advantages;
- Sell their products or services : THE mailing can also have commercial purposes and be used to promote a new article or a flagship product;
- Communicate on a promotional offer ;
- Build customer loyalty with a newsletter : regularly sending a personalized email to your customers allows you to establish a privileged relationship. For example, you can share tips and tricks or inform your subscribers about the news of your company;
- Boost your traffic : integrating links to your blog articles and your social networks is a good way to generate visits on these different channels;
- Strengthen your brand image : A email marketing is the ideal communication medium to talk about the values of your company, its history and its news;
- Convert : sharing promotional offers or informing about your new products aims to encourage the reader to buy your products;
- Develop your business : analysis of key performance indicators (KPIss) allows you to adjust your content and better target and segment your prospects.
Not everyone on your email list has the same expectations. Moreover, they are not at the same stage in their purchasing journey. For example, a loyal customer does not have the same needs as someone who has just subscribed to your newsletter. Segment your mailing list is therefore essential to adapt the message according to each subscriber profile.
Furthermore, it is essential to respect the GDPR. The law requires having obtained the consent of the recipient in order to be able to send him a mailing or a newsletter. Integrating an opt-in form on your website allows you to obtain email addresses with the user’s consent. Also, don’t forget toinsert an unsubscribe link in each of your emails so that users are able to unsubscribe at any time.
To have : Make a free newsletter
5 good reasons to build a mailing list
1 – A direct line to your contacts
The main advantage of a mailing list is that you canreach your contacts directly. Once your email is sent, it lands in their mailbox. This is not the case on social networks.
On Facebook, for example, the organic reach of a post is very low. Only a fraction of your followers can see your posts (usually around 5%). To get more visibility, you need to run a paid advertising campaign.
On the contrary, a well-targeted mailing list allows you to directly reach a qualified audience. This is particularly the case if the recipients have deliberately choose to subscribe to your mailing. Thus, a newsletter can easily generate an open rate of more than 30%. Moreover, the email click-through rate is also more important in a mailing campaign than on social networks.
2 – A real asset against Google, which is becoming a response engine
The evolution of Google makes the email list a real strength in a Marketing strategy. The main search engine has become over the years an answer engine. Indeed, more than half of the searches carried out on Google do not lead to any clicks. THE mastodon has become so efficient that the Internet user no longer needs to click and visit a website to obtain information. This is displayed directly at the top of the first page of results (in position 0). In addition, voice search is increasingly used by Internet users, which only accelerates this evolution.
Thus, the place of SEO (Or natural referencing strategy) as we know it is bound to change. It may gradually generate less traffic.
The mailing can really pull out of the game. The prospecting email, for example, is a very good way to gain visibility. It allows to make known to potential new customers. The newsletter is also a significant source of traffic. You have the possibility of directing qualified visitors towards your site by integrating links in your message or what is called call-to-action“.
Example of optimized call to actions
3 – Traceability and historical revision
There traceability is another strong point of the mailing list, especially if you work in a team. This feature available in emailing tools (like OVH) is very important, because it allows you to observe all the changes made to your contact list. Thus, you are able to know when a change was made and who made it.
Traceability goes hand in hand with the possibility of reviewing the history of your actions. Traceability allows you to have an overview of the changes made. Some mailing tools allow you to go back if one of your moderators has done something wrong. You can thus undo the error and return to your list as it was on a given date.
4 – A good level of security
Being able to access a mailing list usually involves having administrative rights. Thus, your list is only accessible to your moderation team. Furthermore, the most companies host their mailing lists on secure servers. She’s that way protected from hacking attempts.
In order to ensure that your contact list is indeed secure, check if there is a padlock next to the web page URL. If so, the list is protected. You can then easily update your mailing list.
If, conversely, the padlock is not present and if the mention “unsecured connection” is written, you must quickly contact the technical department of your mailing tool.
5 – Backing up the mailing list
Backups are critical when managing a contact list. Saving a list consists of making a copy of it at a given time. This saving will be essential if you later need to restore your list.
You have the option of performing two types of backup in your mailing list:
- Manual backups : you manually export your list and store it in a file on your computer, a USB key or an external hard drive. You can also download it in a dematerialized space like OVHCloud;
- Automatic backups : in this case, your mailing software automatically saves your contact list. The list is then saved in a cloud.
Building an email list can take (a lot) time
There mailing list has one major drawback: creating a good mailing list is very time consuming. It can even take more time than building a social media follower base. Indeed, people tend to communicate their email address less easily than to click on a like.