House List or Retention List. Every business who primarily conducts sales and marketing online and through email campaigns wants to build a viable house email or subscriber list. To maintain this list or lists there are a few steps that need to be taken and maintained over the long term:
- Get permission – it may sound trite but subscribers who have asked for your email messages are more than likely to accept them and not report them as spam or unsubscribe.
- Re-confirm your customers – every year or so, it is advisable to send out an email to all subscribers asking them to reconfirm their desire to continue to accept your email messages. Some businesses are reluctant to do this as it may reduce the house list but will serve to increase your reputation rating if fewer unsubscribes or bounces are recorded.
- Provide a signup form on your website landing page.
- Create an archive list of links to previously published email newsletters – these will help to draw new subscribers when they can see what your editions contained.
- Gather email addresses when customers make purchases
- Use the forward-to-a-friend option – always include a link for your subscribers to send a copy of the newsletter that will render correctly in the recipients inbox.
