Should you collect email addresses of customers and prospects?
In short, yes.
It doesn’t matter what stage of business you are, day 1 or year 100, start an email list if you haven’t yet done so.
Even if you’re not ready (or even really considering) to do any email marketing, start compiling a list. The sooner the better. Here are a few reasons why.
1. You don’t own your social media pages…
Most small businesses rely heavily on social media for the bulk of marketing activities. But, and it’s a BIG BUT - you don’t own your social media pages.
If something happened tomorrow and Facebook or Instagram decided you had somehow contravened their ever-changing rules, your page could be taken down without warning. And then you have lost all of those followers with no other way of contacting them. For one of my pages I have built up over 4,000 likers on Facebook and over 1,000 on Instagram over years. Imagine if I suddenly lost them all and had no other way of communicating with my audience. And that’s small fry compared to some businesses.
2. …but you do own your email list
On the other hand, if you collect their names and emails too, you own it. And if you back it up regularly, even if something happens to your e.g. Mailchimp account, you still have it. So whatever happens, you can still contact them - even if it’s just to let them know that you have a new Facebook page.
3. Website visitors shop around and then forget which one they liked
Before buying a product or service, it’s normal for people to Google and visit different websites for a while first. That might happen over months while they’re researching. So it’s also normal for them to then forget which website was the one they actually liked the look of. By giving them somewhere to subscribe on your website and then sending them an automated welcome email, and perhaps an occasional news email, you are helping them find you again for when they are ready to buy. You might even want to encourage that by offering a discount or a lead magnet depending on what you do.
If you don’t offer somewhere for your website visitors to subscribe there’s a fair chance your competitors are, and that could be the simple thing that wins or loses you that sale.
What sort of information should you collect?
As a bare minimum:
First name
Email address
This means you can personalise your emails at the beginning by saying Hi [name].
What else you collect depends on your business. The more you collect, the more you can use that information, but the less likely people are going to complete your sign-up form either because they feel uncomfortable with giving too much away, or because they can’t be bothered to complete all those boxes.
Where should you store them?
I always think you should start with best practice from the outset. So get a Mailchimp account set up, create an audience and start adding your contact details to it (only if you have their permission of course).
Once you have it set up you can embed it into your processes going forward (click here to read my blog about how to grow your email list).
Mailchimp is:
Cloud based (meaning you can access it from anywhere)
GDPR compliant
A big player which integrates well with a LOT of other things like website builders etc
Allows you to send the same email to lots of people without all that messy bcc-ing, and still personalise each one with their name
Has lots of nifty tools and allows you to insert images, links etc and see reports about who opened what and who didn’t.
Keeps your email marketing separate from your day to day email helping with spam issues
Is free up to 2,000 subscribers (or 10,000 emails per month).
Comply with GDPR
GDPR governs data protection - what information we can collect if any, how we use it and how we store it. Never collect someone’s information for marketing purposes unless they have given their permission to do so. Don’t hold data that you don’t need. Store it securely. Remove someone’s details if asked. There’s obviously more to it than that so for more information about GDPR and how to comply with it click here.
And finally…
If you need any help, guidance or tips about how to do this for your business then drop me a line. I offer a free, no strings attached whatsoever, 15 minute discovery call. And / or sign up to receive my emails for regular tips.
Claire