Growing and managing your list


Acquiring quality opt-in addresses is key to email marketing success. Learn about list building here, including the art and science of coregistration and email append, the importance of list hygiene and proper subscriber management, what you can learn from those who unsubscribe and how to deal with inactive and old addresses.

Popular articles:

Popover sign-up forms: practices and pitfalls
Practical advice on the best ways to implement popover sign-up forms to accelerate list growth without harming the user experience.

Purchasing email lists?
Does it make sense to just buy a list of addresses? This article outlines the dangers and explains the crucial difference between list purchase and list rental.

Subscription forms: list growth and sign-up language
Advice on the right words to use on your sign-up forms to get more opt-ins.

Getting the right email address
Discusses tactics you can use to get people to sign-up with the email address they're most likely to give attention to.

Best practices for sign-up forms
Tips on how to improve the positioning and wording of your standard website sign-up form so it attracts a higher sign-up rate.

More opt-ins through the wisdom of crowds
Tips on how to encourage sign-ups by borrowing the social proof tactics already used by etailers and others.

Basic list building
This is a white paper I wrote for GraphicMail (an email marketing service), with 14 pages of best practice tips and explanation.

Building a list on more than deals and discounts
Looks at how to attract and keep subscribers without resorting solely to ever-deeper discount offers.

Return of the popup subscription box
New popover technologies, applied sensibly, can have dramatic impacts on sign-up rates.

How to get accurate subscriber information: Part 2
Six ways you can learn more about your subscribers after they've got on your list.

How to get accurate subscriber information: Part 1
What can you do before the sign-up to help ensure people give you accurate data in the sign-up form.

Video popovers?
Can you use website video to direct more people to your subscription forms?

Barack Obama and list building "buts"
Looks at the dangers of mirroring successful list growth practices one-to-one without critical evaluation.

Avoid emailer's remorse
Describes some of the people you don't want getting on your list, including permission slaves, focus spreaders, bargain hunters and trigger chasers.

Avoid subscriber's remorse
Offers eight tactics you can use to avoid subscribers getting cold feet after they sign-up to your email list.

Do privacy statements hurt sign-up rates?
A test report suggesting you might question the use of explicit privacy reassurances on your sign-up forms. Are they making people too nervous to submit their email address?

A form on every page?
Reports on tests designed to clarify whether you really do need a full sign-up form on every page of your website.

Why reject webmail addresses?
Article examines the practice of rejecting webmail addresses on sign-up forms and asks "why?" Also check the comments for various theories from readers.

Subscription practices: good and bad examples
Post linking to evaluations, screenshots and case studies of of various sign-up and unsubscribe

Reduce bounces by not having them in the first place
Some pointers to articles with tips on how to avoid getting bad addresses on your email list.

Disposable email addresses and email marketing
Explains the phenomenon of disposable / temporary addresses and the implications for your email marketing efforts.

How to lower your unsubscribe rate
Numerous solutions to the main problems that lead people to leave your email list.

Top tips to grow your email list
Reveals that list growth is as much about retaining existing subscribers as gaining new ones. Includes links to in-depth articles that cover both issues.

How I quadrupled my sign-ups
A mini case study of this site, where newsletter subscriptions rose 300% after a site redesign.

Removing unresponsive addresses from your email list
Lists the reasons why you should consider removing email addresses that aren't responding to your messages.