Managing Your Email Lists
Social media has value but an email list is a better way to grow support for your website. What is an email list?
If you run any kind of organisation, the chances are you will have one or more lists. You may have distribution lists in your email account for various committees and meetings. To call a meeting, distribute minutes or circulate information, you simply call up the distribution list and away you go.
They can be very powerful. So, let’s assume you have one organisation that runs several meetings, with distribution lists for each meeting. Some people will appear on more than one list. Sometimes you may find that joining one group means, they need to receive emails from several groups. And of course, when they leave they need to be removed from all the groups. Perhaps you are familiar with the problem; keeping lists up to date can be a real drag.
Where do You Keep Your Lists?
Distribution lists can be stored by your email account manager or you can keep lists in a spreadsheet such as Excel or you can add a database to your website and keep your lists there.
The latter is a popular option. Some database plug-ins on WordPress, for example, have a lot of functionality. However, they have certain disadvantages, when it comes to sending emails:
- They are not always reliable
- If your list grows to hundreds of members the chances are your host will object to sending hundreds of emails from your site. They will suspect you of spamming.
- These emails do not necessarily follow best practice for bulk emails. There are many examples of good practice, some reinforced by law (depending on where you’re based), eg using an unsubscribe facility, displaying your postal address, adding people to the list with their permission.
So, the best option is to use an email list service and I’ll write about them next time. You can find details of other posts in this series on the page about website design.
What issues have you met using email lists?