Is there a way to ethically hack email list growth?

How to grow your email list, ethically

Below you’ll hear some of the best tips and advice from 8 Mailchimp Pro Partners (including myself) on how you can ethically grow your email list. Growing your email list should always be a priority when it comes to your email marketing, but there are creative ways to do it that are still in compliance with Mailchimp Best Practices.

One hack works above all else. Create high-value and relevant content such as a free course or an ebook to drive signups, rather than simply saying ‘signup to my newsletter’, then add multiple captures like popups on your website to do the heavy lifting for you.

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

I always recommend aiming for quality over quantity when it comes to growing your email list. Capture data in as many places as possible, provide an appealing reason for someone to subscribe, and follow through on what you promise by delivering relevant content. Anything other than this can lead to less than desirable results from your email audience.

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

There are countless smart and ethical ways to grow your email list that don’t involve purchasing emails. Purchasing emails and then marketing to them is not only illegal but it’s simply a bad idea. As long as people are agreeing to opt-in, the sky’s the limit in terms of ways to gain subscribers.

Here are some ways you maybe haven’t thought of:

1. Contributing to a guest blog is a fantastic way to get people back to your own website and hopefully sign up (like the contributors on this post).

2. Offering a simple lead magnet/opt-in via Instagram (like a one-page PDF checklist) and asking people to click the link in your bio to sign up and get it.

As long as you’re asking for permission and people know they’re opting-in, you can dream up almost anything to get a new subscriber.

Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Mailchimp Strategist, Westfield Creative

For me, hacking means knowing very well from the inside how things work and to use this knowledge to reach your goals; there’s nothing inherently unethical in this, as long as the goals are correct and respectful. List growth happens through focusing on our target’s identity, needs and expectations, forging a message that resonates with them and putting that message in front of them, in the right place, at the right time; this requires a deep knowledge not only of email marketing but of CRO, UX, advertising and the rules of persuasion. Most importantly, I don’t believe in short term goals such as the mere quantity of new subscribers; I’d better work for quality subscribers, who not only enter the list but keep reading and maintain the engagement for a long period of time.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Digital Update and Freelancecamp Italia

List growth can definitely be hacked, by hard work. Every point of contact with your business is a marketing opportunity and an opportunity to get permission to send emails to someone. The question people should be asking before they go outside of their business is, “Are we using every single point of contact we have to get email addresses?”. They’re generally not.

Some other ways are:

1. Using google to get people to your website and asking them once they get there to sign up.

2. Using co-registration and working with other businesses to access their database.

3. Advertising on podcasts or being featured on a podcast.

There are endless ethical ways to hack list growth. They generally take more planning and work but will gain you a much higher value customer.

-Glenn Edley, Director & Email Strategist, Spike

If executed correctly and with precision, cold email campaigns can be used very effectively to build permission-based email lists. Cold email reaches out to a qualified list of potential customers or subscribers, tactfully introducing them to the brand in a way that is non-offensive. With the right lures and effective targeting, this method can provide a stream of traffic to your website or offer, which can then be converted into a permission-based email list.

-MaryAnne Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

Firstly, make sure you are ethical with your email list… please… if you’re not it’ll hurt both you AND everyone else so don’t send marketing emails to people who you shouldn’t. In terms of ethically hacking, well, if you take the fact that hacking implies some sort of shortcut or ‘easy path’, I’m not sure… Ultimately, you need to have a way of getting people onto an email list, and not just anyone, but people who want to engage with your business and brand – anyone can build an email list quickly – but is it actually worthwhile, or would you rather focus on emailing the RIGHT people? (but if you do want a short-cut, make sure it’s as easy as possible for the right people to sign up – I’ve seen too many bad forms and no automation to believe that just doing the basics is a good start for most!)

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

I’m not sure I would call this a hack… running ads on Facebook and LinkedIn for newsletter subscribers. Your list will grow quickly, but in my opinion, your list won’t be as engaged as organic subscribers.

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

The 4 Most FAQs We Get About Email and Mailchimp

Email Marketing FAQs

When we decided to focus our agency on Mailchimp email marketing, we started getting a lot of the same questions. Many of these questions we hear several times a week from prospective and new clients. So we’re giving you the deets today.

I’m going to try to answer these for you in the easiest and shortest way possible.

But these are truly four of the most frequently asked we get OFTEN.

1. What’s the best time to send my email?

The answer: There is no perfect send time, except the time you determine after months of testing YOUR audience. Some experts will say Tues-Thurs at 10 am is the best and don’t send on Mondays, but there truly isn’t a perfect time and it’s super important to utilize A/B testing to test different send times to see which time performed better.

In this awesome Guide from Hunter on the best times to send an email, they analyzed 9 prominent case studies and came up with some interesting data – like Fridays being the best for open rates.

And with the pandemic, optimal send times have changed a ton. In the past, Saturdays used to not be so great for sending an email, but now I find that everyone is home and relaxing and this can be a great send time. So it’s important to test this over a period of weeks or months to see what works for your people. What works for an audience of realtors is going to be different than an audience of people who buy, say makeup.

2. Do I need to clean my email list?

The answer: Yes and no. “Cleaning your list” refers to removing or archiving any contacts that are no longer opening your emails or engaged. This is extremely important because it affects the deliverability of your emails. The cleaner your email list, the higher your open rates will be, which improves your sender reputation.

The good news is that Mailchimp helps you do this. Mailchimp automatically “cleans” emails that bounce. I still recommending periodically creating a segment of contacts that “have not opened” one of your last 10 or 20 emails – and then ARCHIVING them. OR creating a re-engagement email campaign to reach out to them and asking if they’re still interested in hearing from you. Anyone that does NOT open that email– archive them (don’t unsubscribe).

3. How do I grow my email list?

The answer: There are many ways, my friend. This is a long conversation, but this should always be one of your top priorities. Growing your email list is vital to having success with your email campaigns. So I always tell clients to focus on this before anything.

Here are some quick ways to start growing your email list:

  • Create a simple one-page PDF to use as a “freebie” or “lead magnet” and offer that people in exchange for signing up. You can offer through a popup on your website or creating a page on your site where people sign up. Create an automated email that sends to them, with the download, after they sign up.
  • Host a short webinar on a topic and ask people to sign up for it.
  • Post weekly on your social media channels about joining your list and the fun stuff they will receive if they subscribe (Ex: This Friday I am sending out the latest edition of my fun weekly email, full of the best email marketing tips…make sure you’re on the list!)
  • Talk about your email list in everything you do. If you’re on a podcast or speak on a webinar, remind me to subscribe to your list.
  • Post multiple opt-ins around your website. Your homepage should have several – a popup, a button at the top, and others weaved in.

There are many other ways, but start with these and it will grow quickly.

4. Do I need to use Tags or Groups or Segments? 

The answer: Yes. Using Mailchimp’s “Tags” or “Groups” and also creating “Segments” are some of the most powerful Mailchimp features you can utilize to personalize your email marketing and create campaigns that are sent to the right people at the right time. And I promise you, they’re not as confusing as you may think.

Tags are used to simply tag your contacts internally. Think of it as a little contact note. Tags could be “local contact” or “contest entry” or “attended Feb webinar” or “Subscription-Active” and the list goes on. A tag is is powerful because you can create campaigns JUST for a specific tag of people and then send them an email campaign. Read more on getting started with Tags here.

A segment is something that you can create in Mailchimp or you can use one of Mailchimp’s pre-built segments. Segments use data already in Mailchimp. For example, “did not open the last email campaign” would be a segment you can create. Or “Purchased an item in last month.” Or “Email contains nike.com” or even “Location is United States.” There are endless possibilities for segments you can create and they’re incredibly useful when sending targeted email campaigns. More on segments here.

Lastly, “Groups.” The important thing to note about “Groups” is that the contact can view these. You can set up a Group to ask your customer/contacts something like “Are you interested in:” “Emails only, webinar info, events, don’t want any emails” Those would be 4 responses within 1 group. Groups are useful for gathering contact’s interests. More here on getting started with Groups.

Example of a Group in Mailchimp

So while TAGS are something you do internally to tag a contact, a Group is something you setup so your contacts can choose. And a segment is what you create based on these tags and groups.

These are some quick answers to some of our most asked questions. Hope they were helpful!

This Canva/Mailchimp secret is my fave

Wanna see something real cool?

Canva has this super handy Mailchimp integration that most people don’t know about. It allows you to take any of your Canva graphics and with a click of a button, they go straight into your Mailchimp Content Studio. I thought it would be helpful to show you where it’s hidden, so I made ya video.

CLICK HERE to see a quick video of this awesome integration.


Also, did you know Mailchimp has 273 integrations?! That’s more than any other email provider out there. From Unsplash, to Photoshop to Salesforce and so many more.



What’s the biggest mistake people make in email marketing?

Email marketing mistakes

 

Email marketing can be challenging. From making a simple technical mistake that is then sent to thousands of people (we’re all human), like not testing your email or checking spelling, to not finding out what your subscribers really want to know, mistakes do happen. So we thought it would be helpful to ask the email experts. We surveyed 8 Mailchimp Pro Partners to find out what they see as the biggest mistakes that are made in email marketing. The answers are varied, which shows that so many mistakes can easily be made, so there’s a lot of great to stuff to learn here.

 

Here’s what they had to say about the biggest mistakes in email marketing:

 

“Sending the same message to the same people. It’s bonkers, but people do.”

Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

 

 

“1. Not personalizing emails! Especially when I’m a customer and they know my name. “Dear Sir or madam” or “Dear customer”. Bleh!

2. Loooooooooong emails (without images).”

Nick Beuzekamp, CEO and Founder, Online Marketing Bonaire

 

 

“The biggest mistake most marketers make is telling subscribers what they want them to know and not what the subscriber wants to hear. You have to deliver on what you promised when the subscriber signed up. If your emails are self-serving and not valuable to the subscriber, you’ll quickly lose their attention.”

Adam Q. Holden-Bache, Director of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

 

 

“Sending emails that are TOO long or too wordy. Simplify, simplify. Emails do not need to be long and full of TONS of content. Days of the long newsletter are over (in my opinion). Sometimes a great image, a short blurb and a button are all that you need for a great email. Try not to overthink it. 
 
Also, many people don’t think to recycle/reuse old content. Bring back an old blog post (and make it into an email). If you had an email do really well a year ago, bring it back. You don’t need to create brand new content with every email.”
 
Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Email Strategist, Westfield Creative

 

 

“Lack of segmentation: you have a huge mailing list and you send to everybody, because “it costs nothing and somebody could be interested”. As I always repeat, you can’t do nothing to raise relevancy of a message for anybody; or it is relevant, or it isn’t. What you can positively do, instead, is to diminish irrelevancy, by choosing not to send a message to people who are the least likely to be interested (e.g. send a discount reminder to people who have already made a purchase using that discount code, or invite people to events they can’t attend because of distance or other constraints).”

Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Digital Update and Freelancecamp Italia

 

 

“The biggest mistake I see with email marketing is not doing it. The next mistake is businesses just ‘ticking the box’ with their email marketing and not seeing the value in the customers they’re sending too. That sucks to me. Email addresses are like gold. They are literally putting you in the palm of someone’s hand and they need to be treated as such.”

Glenn Edley, Director & Email Strategist, Spike

 

 

“Most businesses and organizations who do not use professional email marketers make the mistake of not sending enough email. There is an ingrained concern about over-messaging by email in most organizations that is a direct result of past attitudes and technologies that no longer play in the space. For those of us who work every day in this business, we understand that the correct strategy and planning means that you can send email every day, sometimes more than once per day, and you will not only see great results from your campaigns, you will build loyalty and engagement with your audience.”

MaryAnn Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

 

 

“Not having a plan before they start. I’ve spoken to too many people who jump into Mailchimp, get quickly confused or disillusioned and then think the system doesn’t work. If you don’t start with a clear goal you’ll always struggle no matter what it is your trying to do.”

Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

 

“Not doing it or giving up on it too soon or both together. If you’re not sending regular emails and people don’t know who you are don’t expect them to jump at the chance to purchase from you on that 1 email you sent this year. Email is a dialogue. Email is a relationship. Relationships take time. Email marketing needs consistency and persistence.”

Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

 

 

Want to learn about these Mailchimp experts and Pro Partners? Check them out in the Mailchimp Directory here.

Mailchimp experts

What tool/app/software could you not live without? 8 Mailchimp partners share their top tips.

Top online tools from Mailchimp partners

Here, 8 Mailchimp partners and email marketing experts share their top tips on what online tools they rely on each day. So much great advice here!

 

Slack. We’ve been using Slack since January 2016, but during COVID where the team is no longer in one central location, Slack is the backbone of our comms, both with the internal team and our external workforce. I can’t imagine how we’d manage without it.
Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

 

I’m a fan of to-do-lists, so Todoist.com is my everyday tool. For every area of my life (not only work) I’ve defined separate projects, and every time I decide to do something I put it in my list, with a due date and a priority level.


I have a lot of recurring tasks: newsletters (each one with its checklist of things to do), recurring payments, various kinds of errands; this helps me to free my mind and be sure that I won’t forget anything.


At the end of the day I check what’s on my list for tomorrow, I may reschedule something if the list is too long, and I prepare for the day to come.
Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Digital Update and Freelancecamp Italia

 

Is Adobe an answer? If I have to choose… Photoshop… no, Illustrator… Dreamweaver… 
Indesign! I cannot live without Indesign. I use it for all designs, templates and forms.
Nick Beuzekamp, CEO and Founder, Online Marketing Bonaire

 

Google Suite. Toon Blast comes a close second.
Glenn Edley, Director & Email Strategist, Spike

 

For overall productivity, Google Workspace (https://workspace.google.com/) is our most important tool for both email marketing and general campaign creation. The ability to work concurrently with other team members on live documents, as well as share information transparently with clients is absolutely essential to providing top quality work in a timely and efficient manner. Clients who are not familiar with live document use find the access, technology and process capability amazing, and we’ve converted many to utilizing online document creation tools for their own departments and companies.
MaryAnn Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

 

Timeular – Time tracking dice. https://timeular.com/ It makes tracking my work time fun. I’ve gotten more productive since I started using it. 

My bonus tool is Qbserve, an automatic time tracking tool for Macs.

I can categorize the websites and apps I use and know at a glance if my day was productive. It’s made me more mindful of my time.
Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

 

I’m a big fan of OptinMonster and use it to create dynamic forms to capture new subscribers. I’m also constantly moving data so I rely on Zapier to automate workflows. My favorite new tool is OneSignal, which provides web browser push notifications. Push notifications have been a great complement to email messaging.
Adam Q. Holden-Bache, Director of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

 

Slack. This powerful messaging tool has been an absolute game-changer for our business. Our small team uses it to communicate all day, every day. We’d have a million more emails to sift through without it. It’s great to be able to shoot a quick question or note to someone as you’re working on a project. Couldn’t live without it.
Emily Ryan, Co-Founder and Email Strategist, Westfield Creative

 

For more on Mailchimp Partners or to contact one of these experts, see Mailchimp’s Experts Directory here. 

Mailchimp experts

Do you need email validation if you use Mailchimp?

We’re thrilled to share a special interview that we did with the COO of ZeroBounce, a company that specializes in email deliverability (i.e., making sure your emails actually reach the Inbox…kind of important, right?).

 

We came across their new Inbox Placement Tester tool recently and loved it so much that I had to reach out.

 

So, meet Brian Minick, the COO. I asked Brian some questions, including their integration with Mailchimp. Enjoy!

Brian Minick ZeroBounce COO of ZeroBounce, Brian Minick

So, what exactly is ZeroBounce and do I need this if I use Mailchimp? 

ZeroBounce is a go-to platform for anyone who sends emails and wants to make sure they reach the inbox. Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or a marketer working for a corporation – you want to connect with real people, and that’s what we help you with. 

What started as an email validation service has evolved into a platform with multiple features: list cleaning, A.I. email scoring, and deliverability testing. 

Do you need it if you use MailChimp? Yes! Validating your list will help achieve better deliverability and therefore should help increase your chance to inbox. Mailchimp also will block your list upload and throw an Omnivore error which we help solve.

What’s more, ZeroBounce integrates directly with MailChimp, so it’s easier to import your list, clean it, and export it back onto MailChimp.

Do you have to have a big “list” to use this? 

No, it’s a percentages game. Whether your list is big or small, the percentage of bounces is the game that is played. We have customers that email only a hundred or so contacts and are finding value in our services. Alternatively, our large enterprise clients – who send millions of emails – include us into their workflows right before they send.

Why is email deliverability so important? 

It’s difficult to tell people that a lesser quantity, but a higher quality list is better. They often think that if you have a million contacts, you have a better chance of getting conversions sending to all of them. This is simply untrue. 

If we take your list and remove 30% of the bad contacts, it leaves with you 700k. Sending to those 700k but increasing your chance to get it into the inbox means this: 700k in inbox, vs 1m in spam. See the difference? Which has a better chance of converting?

Tell me more about your company. Are your employees remote? 

Right now, everyone is remote. In normal circumstances, we have three offices and most of our team reports to them. We have a few off-site employees as well. 

Where are you based? 

Our headquarters is in Boca Raton FL. We also have a satellite office in Santa Barbara, and an office in Bucharest, Romania to handle our around-the-clock service. 

How many people work at ZeroBounce?

About 30 in total.

How did you start your company? 

It started out of a need. We were looking for email validators to help with our own marketing campaigns at our sister company. Finding a company that guaranteed accurate results and took data privacy seriously proved impossible. Our CEO saw an opportunity and decided to build the service. 

Six years later, here we are, and very strong! We were built on the foundation above: security, privacy, and quality. Our customer feedback shows that we’re hitting the mark on all three.

What started as an email validation service has evolved into a platform with multiple features: list cleaning, A.I. email scoring, and deliverability testing.

What advice would you give to someone who is new to email marketing? 

1) Start with a clean list, use double opt-in to confirm people who are on your list actually wanted to be there. 

2) Don’t be shy to use free services to help get you started. Many companies offer them (including us) for little companies and start-ups. You have to start somewhere. We want you to be successful. 

3) Measure performance, which comes in the form of inbox/spam. Try out our free inbox placement tester, which will give insight in how your campaign might perform out in the marketplace. Remember, emails that go to spam are simply a waste of your energy and resources. You need to be in people’s inboxes. 

4) You will do something wrong, it’s natural. Keep track of what’s working and not, and stay flexible so you can adjust your moves.

***

Thank you so much, Brian!

More here:

ZeroBounce’s Email Server Tester

9 Tips for Awesome Cyber Monday Emails

Mailchimp Email Marketing Cyber Monday DID YOU KNOW that Cyber Monday was the biggest online sales day of the year in 2018? In case ya didn’t know, this is probably the busiest week of the year for us email marketers, so I thought I’d give you a few important Cyber Monday email tips here. And also – I just love this photo.
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1. Send your Cyber Monday email when others AREN’T. Don’t follow the crowd. Send the day before or even the day after. Or send it today! I’m sure you’ve already seen quite a few Black Friday emails. You should also use Mailchimp’s “send time optimization” tool to determine the best send time for your particular Audience. ⁣
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2. Urgency. Make sure you explain when the deal will end so people feel a sense of urgency to buy that day. ⁣
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3. Don’t hesitate to send it late at night. One study I read shows 11pm had a high click rate (I know I shop online late at night…🤔)⁣
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4. Keep it short and sweet. Your email should include your deal, a big image of your product, coupon code and a button to buy it. Remove any extra fluff. ⁣
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5. Use GIFs or moving images in your email to keep it fun and interesting. ⁣Check out this gorgeous email from Kidly.
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6. Keep subject lines short (under 30 characters) and use emojis. Think fun and light. ⁣
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7. Make sure you have an Abandoned Cart email setup and ready. ⁣This is a huge opportunity to increase your sales.
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8. Use all channels. Consider creating a Facebook Ad or a landing page for your Cyber Monday deal. Promote on social. This will make you way more competitive. ⁣
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9. Send your email a second time! Consider sending an “EXTENDED” email after Cyber Monday saying the sale has been extended. ⁣
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Happy Online Shopping Season! I’ll be over here getting our client’s emails ready and tested.
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(Photo via @fashionsfromhistory on Instagram)

Why You Must Backup your Mailchimp Lists – Now.

Emily Ryan

Quick tip for you if you use any online service provider.

As you probably noticed this week, Instagram and Facebook both went down for nearly a full 24 hours. With this comes a very important reminder…

You MUST back up all of your Mailchimp contact lists (or whatever email platform you use).

I want you to make sure you have downloaded a .csv file of your EVERY list you have in Mailchimp. If your email program were to ever go down, you just don’t want to risk losing that data. These are YOUR subscribers.

In Mailchimp, you simply go to your List and then Export (and download). Just keep these .csv files somewhere safe. More instructions here.

This also goes for other services. Anywhere you can, you want to be exporting any important data. This means taking a monthly backup of your WordPress website, downloading your accounting files from your invoice program, etc. Everything should periodically be backed up.

Set a calendar reminder each month to BACK IT UP. In fact, our favorite WordPress back up plugin is called WPBackItUp. Highly recommend.

That’s it. Back it up. We now have witnessed that online apps can go down!

Contact us if you ever need quick help doing this.