Ultimate Guide To Building An Email List for Marketing

If you’ve been sending out email newsletters for a little while, you’ll know just how important it is to have a good-quality email list.

Without this, you could either be sending to very few people and ultimately not getting much exposure, or the email list you’re using is full of subscribers who aren’t really interested in your brand.

So what should you do? Getting your hands on a great email list may seem like witchcraft–or at the very least, a lot of hard work.

Don’t fret. beehiiv is here to talk you through the best ways of getting your hands on an email list that not only has lots of contacts but is full of the best quality subscribers, too.

How Do I Get a List Of Email Addresses for Marketing?

There are three principal ways to generate email addresses for marketing. We’re going to talk you through these below and give you the low-down on the pros and cons of each method.

Paid Lists

Buying email lists is how most people used to expand their email marketing. Getting your hands on a paid list involves working with a list provider to purchase lists based on demographic information, such as age, sex, and occupation.

While this may seem like a super quick way to get a juicy email list, it’s not the best, most sustainable way to build a group of subscribers. You’ll have to pay significant fees every time you want to expand your lists. Plus, it’s seen to be unethical, as paid lists can violate rules of consent under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

GDPR protects consumers from receiving marketing communications from companies they haven’t agreed to hear from–thus, paid lists are in dodgy territory, as you won’t know for sure if you’ve purchased an ethically generated list.

Rented Lists

Another option for getting an email list for marketing is to rent one. This usually involves working with another company, which owns the list and is happy to let you use it for your own marketing.

However, this isn’t as simple as it seems. Usually, this will involve the company that owns the list sending an email on your behalf, making it difficult for you to measure the efficacy of the list. You’ll need to rely on feedback from the provider you’re working with, and you may be required to pay for access to the list.

Opt-In Lists

The last (and our personal favorite) method for getting your hands on a high-quality email list is to generate a list yourself using opt-in functionality. This allows you to be sure that the subscribers you’re emailing definitely want to receive your emails. Plus, you won’t need to rely on other companies to provide you with potentially sketchy, expensive mailing lists.

The best part about opt-in lists is that they’re usually free to generate. More on this later!

How Can I Get Free Email Lists?

You may think that getting your hands on a free email list is impossible. In fact, it’s super easy - you will need to put in some time, but with a bit of hard work you’ll have yourself a high-quality email list for marketing.

Let’s get straight into our top ten recommendations for building a free email list!

Lead Generation Offers

The first way to build a free email list is to use lead generation offers. This means giving people an attractive proposition to engage them and asking for their email addresses as a trade-off for something exciting.

For example, let’s say you’re promoting a new product launch. You could share a nice graphic of your latest product on your website, with a button that says ‘Subscribe Now For More Info’. This provides an exchange whereby your website visitor will hand over their email address in return for information on your new product. Nifty, huh?

Offer Freebies/Discount Codes

Along the same lines as the above method, offer your audience freebies and discount codes in return for their email address. People are used to receiving hundreds of emails every day, so giving up their email addresses in return for a great discount code will be worth it for most people.

All you need to do is decide what level of discount/freebie you’re willing to give up and include this in your marketing with the caveat of providing their email address. Once they’ve entered their email address, they’ll receive an email with the code they’ve requested!

Exclusive Content

Exclusive content is a great way to build your email list for free. If your website visitors/social media followers like what you do, they’ll be keen to sign up for exclusive content that only a few special subscribers will have access to.

There are many types of content you could create, such as exclusive blog content, training sessions, free infographics, and much more. Simply request an email address from your audience and they’ll start receiving exclusive content from you - and you’ll have another email address added to your mailing list.

Customer Reviews

If your brand sells products or services, customer reviews are an excellent way of getting new email addresses.

Make a list of customers that you know are super happy with your services and contact them for a review. If they like your services and trust you, they’re more likely to offer up their email address to go with their positive review!

Social Media

If you’re not using Social Media to build your email lists, you need to try it out. You may have a small mailing list, but lots of engaged followers on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram–so make the most of these and see if you can get their email addresses!

Send out a post to your followers telling them about your mailing list campaign and offering them the incentive to sign up. Contacting an audience that you know is already engaged is one of the most effective ways to build a high-quality mailing list.

You could also use Facebook Ads if you’re looking for further reach. Check out our blog for tips on how Facebook Ads can get you more newsletter subscribers...

Competitions

Competitions are brilliant for adding more email addresses to your mailing list. Who doesn’t enjoy the chance of winning something for free, right?

All you’d need to do is run a competition on Social Media to generate interest and link this with a landing page requesting an email address in return for entry into the competition. Make sure to tell people that they may receive marketing emails in return for entry - most people are happy with this for the chance to win something great.

Gate Content

Gating content is another way of generating more subscribers for your brand. This may sound complicated, but all it means is restricting some of your more exciting content to those who are happy to provide their email address in return.

This could include access to training materials, ebooks, white papers, or guides to different topics. Generating this content regularly, and asking your audience for their email address in return for access, can be a really quick way to grow a substantial email list.

Include Sharing Buttons in Emails

Another top tip for adding free email addresses to your list is to make sure you’re including sharing buttons on all of your current newsletters.

It may seem strange to focus on your current subscribers; however, your current audience is clearly engaged enough that you have their email address, and they may have friends who would also be interested in your brand. See your current subscribers as brand ambassadors and allow them to share your content with their friends.

We’d also advise including an ‘Opt In’ section as a staple section in your newsletters. This way, if a friend sends a potential subscriber your newsletter, they’ll easily be able to opt in and start receiving your content, too.

Referral Scheme

Similarly to the method above, a referral scheme would be highly successful in generating more email addresses for your mailing list.

You’ll just need to think of an incentive to give your existing subscribers as a reward for referring a friend to your brand. This could be a discount code or money off their next purchase with you.

Once their friend has signed up and you’ve got their email address, the existing subscriber will receive the incentive advertised. Another win-win situation - you get a new email for your mailing list, and your subscriber gets a reward for sharing the word about your brand.

Ask For Emails

Our last recommended method for building a free mailing list may seem surprisingly simple, but there’s no doubt that it works.

Simply asking people for their email addresses can be really successful in building an email list. You could contact existing happy customers asking if you can add their email addresses to your subscriber list, or have a sign-up form at your next event.

However you do it, a personal approach is often best when asking for email addresses, as it shows potential subscribers that you’re personable and are keen to email people ethically.

How Do I Collect Email Listings?

There are several ways to collect email listings, as you’ve seen from our recommendations above. Some of this will involve simple data entry; however, there are a few quicker ways you can collect email listings to save some time.

For example, you can link opt-in forms directly to your mailing lists, removing the need to add them manually. You can also collect email lists via CSV documents, and then bulk import them into your subscriber list.

You’ll find yourself manually typing email addresses into your subscriber lists occasionally, but there are plenty of ways you can automate this process to make your life a little easier.

Is It Legal To Buy Email Lists?

While it is legal to purchase email lists, there are a few key reasons we wouldn’t recommend this.

First, it’s probably the worst way of generating high-quality email addresses for your mailing lists. When buying a list, it’s unlikely that you’ll know how the email addresses were acquired. They could have been harvested unethically, causing the list subscribers to react badly upon receiving an email from you - that’s the last thing you want.

You may also find that purchased lists include subscribers that opted-in many years ago. This is likely to result in uninterested subscribers, and you’ll likely find that a large proportion of the email addresses on paid lists are defunct or no longer used.

Ultimately, yes, you can buy email lists legally–but we would strongly recommend against it for the above reasons. Build yourself a high-quality list and you’ll know for sure where the email addresses have come from, the interest levels of your subscribers, and a free strategy for further building your list.

For more tips on increasing the reach of your newsletter, take a look at our blog.

Wrap Up

We hope that you feel inspired to build your own brilliant email list, and that you can’t wait to get started! If so, we’ve got more good news for you. The beehiiv newsletter platform allows you to store up to 2,500 subscribers for free, with unlimited email sending.

If you’ve got more than 2,500 subscribers, we’ve got two paid plans that provide increased subscriber storage, with our popular Enterprise plan giving you the ability to store an unlimited number of subscribers!

Sign up for free with beehiiv today and start building your own email list - good luck!