An email list, also known as an email address list, or even mailing list, is a set of contact email addressesEmail addresses, also known as "electronic addresses" or simply "emails", represent a form of digital communication popu... More that an entity owns, enabling it to interact with its contacts through email marketingEmail marketing, also known as Emailing, is a digital marketing strategy that uses email as its medium. It is one of the... More.
The email list is often an extract of the global customer contact file, which also contains, in addition to email addresses, the contact’s administrative information (surname, first name, postal address, etc.).
An email list may have been created in a number of different ways:
– through natural user registrations on the company’s website
– by supplying a digital resource to a user in exchange for his email address (white paper, collection of practical tips, etc.)
– by using growth-hacking tools to boost the email list growth : this involves extracting and enriching leads with specialized tools that use Linkedin (e.g. dropcontact, evaboot), in order to find new professional email addresses related to your business sector.
It’s also worth noting that some companies that find it difficult to build their email list natively may be tempted to rent or purchase an email contact list specific to their business sector (through companies specializing in the sale of industry specific emails).
It should be noted that, in addition to often being expensive, these solutions are not without risk: indeed, current legislation in each countries (including the RGPD in Europe) strictly defines the authorized use (and what is prohibited) for direct marketing towards individuals. It is therefore advisable to be cautious when purchasing or renting an email base, and to check before that such use is not prohibited in one’s own country.
There is also a risk for the sender’s domain reputation : emails into the purchased list may be old and generate many hard bounces, impacting the sending domain overall deliverability. In addition, for specific emails that don’t generate hard bounces, real people into these purchased email bases are often flooded with advertising emails on a daily basis and may be more inclined to click on the “this is spam” button (i.e. generate a complaint report), which will also have a strong negative effect on the sending domain reputation.
In the digital marketing natural cycle, a company will regularly send messages to its contacts, targeting each time specific segments of its email list.
To better manage the events that trigger these mailings to the affected segments (promotion, anniversary, abandoned cart, lead nurturing, etc.), email lists are often managed through centralized customer relations tools known as CRMs.
For bulk emailing (sending an email to a large number of contacts on an email list, or even the entire mailing list), companies often use a type of solution specialized in mass sending, known as an email routerAn email router is an online service that simplifies and enriches (through statistics and tracking) the email marketing ... More.
As a central point of the email marketing process, it’s important to make sure that the email list is of the highest quality (i.e., by prioritizing good quality contacts over the total number of contacts). In order to maintain a good reputation and deliverability, it is advised to clean up an email list once or twice a year, using an email verifierAn email verifier, also known as an email checker, is a software used to check an email address or a list of email addre... More