How do you add 15 new email addresses to your list every day?

If you want to attract relevant email addresses for your newsletter, give people something that interests them. A free guide on the subject you work with can be worth far more than a long list of people who just entered some random competition.

In the first episode of Thorborgs Brevkasse from December 2008, I answer Henrik’s question about newsletters, spam complaints and building a mailing list. The sign-up examples describe the practices I talked about at the time.

It’s my experience that I’m sharing

The idea behind the Q&A is that the answer shouldn’t only help the person asking. Other entrepreneurs facing the same challenge should get something out of it too.

I’m not God when it comes to entrepreneurship. At this point, I’ve been an entrepreneur for 15 years and tried many different things. Those are the experiences and challenges I can share with you.

There’s always more than one possible answer to a question. So you have to consider for yourself whether what I say is useful in your situation.

I choose questions that are relevant and interesting to more people. If lots come in, I can’t get through them all. In the video, I therefore suggest following the Q&A blog by email or RSS so you can see whether your question gets answered.

Henrik asks about spam complaints

Henrik writes that many people recommend building a list for newsletters and good offers. But what do you do when recipients mark an email as spam instead of using the unsubscribe link?

His concern is that enough spam reports can cause email programs to treat your messages as spam for other recipients too, even if you believe you’ve done things correctly.

My first thought is that he may have attracted the wrong recipients. That’s my guess at the problem, rather than something I can know for certain about his list.

People get angry when the content isn’t right for them

If you get people onto a list in a way that leaves them feeling tricked, they can get angry. It’s largely about the connection between what they thought they were signing up for and what they subsequently receive.

In the video, I explain that at the time Amino pre-ticked the newsletter sign-up box when someone created an account. My thinking was that people with an Amino account might also be interested in what was happening on Amino.

You could untick the box or unsubscribe. In my experience at the time, we hadn’t had problems with spam complaints. It’s a historical example of our practices as I described them in 2008.

In my view, problems often arise when a company buys lists from competitions. People want to win the Christmas competition and may also agree to emails from various partners.

But if I then suddenly receive newsletters about shotguns and tennis shoes, I may feel something has been shoved down my throat. I might not be thinking about politely finding the unsubscribe link. I can get angry and mark the email as spam.

So be honest about what people will receive. Don’t acquire addresses in all sorts of obscure ways. Find people who are actually interested in your subject.

Attract relevant email addresses with a free resource

The best tip I can give is to create a free resource. Both I and several people I’ve recommended it to have had really good experiences with it.

I created E-pusher light, a short, free book about e-marketing. In the example I describe, you get the book by providing your email address and then receive my newsletter with more tips on the same subject.

There’s a close connection between the book and the newsletter. Someone who wants to read about e-marketing also has a reason to be interested in regular e-marketing tips. And unsubscribing again should be easy.

My list grew from around 3,000 to around 15,000 subscribers. I was getting lots of new addresses every day.

For one talk, the organisers hoped for 100–200 attendees. I mentioned it in the newsletter, and 550 people signed up. The last 150 had to go on a waiting list. That’s an example of what a relevant list can do.

Others I’d suggested the same approach to reported 15, 20 or 25 new addresses a day. Those are their experiences and mine that I’m sharing here.

Make a guide that helps your target audience

If you sell shotguns, for example, you could make a PDF about looking after and maintaining a gun. Or a hunting guide on a subject that interests your audience.

The point isn’t the specific hunting example. It’s to make something your potential customers find useful and that relates to what you sell.

Make a guide of 10–15 pages and display it prominently on your home page. Explain what people get and make it clear that they’re also signing up for the newsletter on the same subject.

In the video, I use an optimistic calculation: If a website with 50 daily visitors could attract five to ten new addresses a day, it would build a large list over a year. Ten a day is more than 3,600 addresses in a year.

The interesting part is the quality. Those people have shown an interest in your exact subject. If you also sell products that help them with it, you’re in a much better position to sell something to them.

I would choose genuine interest over random lists

My advice to Henrik is therefore to stop chasing all sorts of random mailing lists. Create a good free resource and use your website to find people who actually want to hear from you.

Don’t just collect as many addresses as possible. Collect relevant addresses, be clear about the newsletter and send something recipients want.

First episode of Marton Thorborg’s Q&A

Henrik asks how to keep your list clean so people don’t report you for spam.
I answer that and a bit more..

We’re just testing a link.