Seven Steps to Build Your B2B Email List
Your company’s email list is only as good as your contact database. No matter how great your emails are, they won’t work if they don’t reach the target audience. Eventually, your contacts change jobs or receive promotions, their companies go out of business or merge with entirely different organizations, it is very important to verify and re verify your list in regular intervals.
The correctness of B2B email lists is constantly eroding. Slowly but surely, you’ll be left with unreliable data. If you aren’t careful about the factors that impact email deliverability, you could potentially run your email marketing program into obsolescence.
Here are 7 steps to build an accurate and personal email list:
1. Cleanse your database regularly
Firstly, prioritize database cleansing. There’s no point in growing and maintaining your email list if you don’t have a management strategy to maintain the collected data. Consider the following:Certain amounts of B2B database contacts contain critical errors, resulting in dirty email lists.Marketing teams say a lack of accurate data remains a challenge.Establish controls to manage how data is being fitted into your CRM and work with an email list cleansing service or solution to regularly audit your database and keep your email lists up-to-date, reliable and unique.
2. Highlight your subscription box
Don’t hide your subscription box at the bottom of your website. You want to make it as easy as possible for visitors to subscribe to your emails.Not only do you want your subscription box front and center, but you should also incorporate it within all website content. The reason here is to get your readers to subscribe to the email.
3. Incorporate the ‘opt-in’ option on all web forms
Whether someone is signing up for a free trial or free subscription or filling out a ‘contact us’ form, give them the option to opt-in to your email list. This person is already having some sort of interest in your company, capitalize on this!
4. Gate your best content
Have a blog that is doing exceptionally well? Put it behind a form and ask readers of the blog to subscribe to your email list to get access to this premium and quality content. While we don’t recommend gating all content, choosing certain pieces gives readers the feeling that they’re receiving an exclusive offer.
5. Offer a discount
Humans tend to like products or services which are free or on discount.Speaking of absolute and unique offers, give your prospects and customers a discount for subscribing to your emails or offer them discounts on special occasions. Whether it’s one pound off or a free week of your product or service, people appreciate a good bargain.
6. Take it offline
This might seem old school, however, it’s effective. The internet offers an easy way to get new subscribers but you can still collect some of the best email addresses in person. Whether you’re meeting with a prospect for lunch, having a casual conversation on the train, or hosting a marketing event, always collect people’s business cards so that you get their email details.
7. Work with a data provider
While it’s a good way to collect email addresses organically, you should also work with a data provider. Leading data providers can analyze your existing database and build an accurate email list matching the characteristics of your best buyers—people interested in your business’ content and communications.
Conclusion:
Building an accurate B2B email list from scratch is not something that happens overnight. You need strategic measures and methods with a lot of patience to make it happen. The steps mentioned above will provide some ideas to be utilized for your own brand. And remember, what matters the most is not how fast you can build your email list or quantity of email list but what quality of prospects you can bring into it. Implementing these seven steps to secure the quality of your data and as a consequence, your email marketing lists will help your organization’s email marketing programs succeed.
