We would like to notify you that although the GraphicMail software will be available as usual, our UK office will be closed on Monday 31st August as it is a bank holiday.

As the UK office will be closed, support via email, live chat and the telephone will be unavailable however if you do require any assistance then you can view our Help Center (tab on the left within your GraphicMail account).

Our Help Center has lots of up-to-date user guides, video tutorials and FAQ's for you to view; you can also gain direct access to it here: http://graphicmailuk.uservoice.com/knowledgebase

Our UK office will reopen at 9am on Tuesday 1st September.

Within this section of the 'Ultimate Guide To Email Marketing', we're covering the vital task of Growing Your Mailing List. If you have a fantastic email design but nobody to send it to then you're not going to get very far. With that in mind we've outlined some key points that will help you gain more subscribers and collect the much needed data in the process.

Below we've provided guidance from the beginning stages of deciding what data you need to collect, all the way through to sending your first welcome email.

Decide what data you need to collect

Gather your subscriber’s first name and surname, as you can use this information to personalise your emails making a better connection with the recipient.

It would also be beneficial if you're able to gather further details from your subscribers such as; their location, date of birth, gender and interests. When you have this type of information you can use it to send to your subscribers more targeted and therefore relevant emails.

Find out what your subscribers actually want by displaying different mailing lists for them to sign up to such as daily, weekly or monthly emails, special offers, company updates and much more.

Decide how you will collect the data

There are many different ways in which you can collect data from your subscribers;

• Subscription forms - add a subscription form onto your website.
• Facebook - add a subscription form onto Facebook to convert your Facebook friends into subscribers.
• Free downloads - include a subscribe option on online purchases and free downloads.
• Directories - get listed in directories and search engines.
• Marketing strategy - make growing your mailing list part of your marketing strategy.
• Be social - make sure the 'subscribe' and 'forward to a friend' options are presented in the emails you send out so new people can subscribe.
• Microsite - include a microsite on your main website, by doing this you can archive all of your past emails so users can see exactly what you have been sending. Don’t forget to add a subscribe option at the bottom of the microsite so those users can subscribe to receive your future emails.

Promote your mailing list

• Website - add subscription forms on your website so every visitor knows that they can sign up to receive emails from you. It is best to include a subscribe option on all pages if possible; an ideal place to add it is within the website footer.
• Share emails - share your emails on social networking websites to promote them.
• Facebook - create a Facebook app so you can include a subscription form in it, or if you would prefer, you can just add a link to your subscription form within your Facebook description so anyone can use it.
• Website blog - if you have a website blog then why not produce a blog promoting your mailing list to get more signups. The blog is also another great opportunity to include a subscribe option.
• Viral marketing - use viral marketing so everyone knows you have a mailing list they can join.

Provide incentives to gain new subscribers

• Special offers - you can provide special offers for those that sign up to your mailing list.
• Discount - you can provide a special discount for those that sign up to your mailing list such as 20% off the first order if they quote a specific code.
• Free downloads - if you have content that you are willing to give away then why not use it as an incentive for people to sign up. Once they have signed up for the white paper, ebook or even discount code you can send them a follow up email with the discount code showing, or providing them with a direct link to download the resource. This can easily be achieved using a subscribe auto-responder.

Decide how to use the data you have collected

• Include personalisation - you can include your subscriber’s details in an email. The best place to start is with their first name, their location or even their last product bought. By doing this you are letting your subscribers know the email is specifically targeted to them.
• Segment your data - you can use a segmentation tool to separate your mailing list into smaller more targeted groups based on the data you have such as males within a specific area who have stated they are interested in the same things.
• Target your email design - you can change your emails depending on who you are sending them to, such as changing the terminology used, products presented, the layout, colour scheme and more.

Key elements of a welcome email

• Subscribe auto-responder - you can create a subscribe auto-responder which will automatically send an email once a new user signs up to a specific mailing list.
• Incentive - make sure the incentive you advertised is actually presented within the first email you send.
• Gather more data - you may want to take this opportunity to ask the recipient to provide more details.
• Trusted sender - ask the recipient to add your 'from email address' as a trusted sender to make sure your email arrives within the inbox.
• Tell them what to expect - let the recipient know what they can expect from your emails such as what content they will be sent and how often.

Continue communication

• Use automated emails - you can use auto-responders to send follow-up emails when a subscriber has taken a certain action such as opened an email, clicked a link or when they subscribe/unsubscribe.
• Landing pages - ensure the landing pages used are easily recognisable and that they provide the relevant information needed. Also if your email is responsive then make sure your landing pages are too.

With the information provided above, hopefully it has given you some great ideas of how you can gain new subscribers & use the data they provide. If you have any ideas of your own then please share them with us on Facebook: share your own ideas

On Tuesday 25th August we will be introducing a new auto-sieve feature. This feature will scan any lists you import and inform you of the cleanliness and validity of that list. Instructing you to either clean the list or, if potentially harmful to your sending reputation, whether you will be able to send using that list at all!

If your mailing list is fine then you will see no message after importing it, however if further action is required then you will have to action one of these:

• You will need to clean your mailing list using our list clean up tool.
• Blocked: Sending to this list will have extremely hazardous effects on your sender reputation and as such you will be unable to send to this mailing list. Contacting support in this respect may enable us to point you in the right direction.

This feature is not retrospective and as such will only be actioned on new imports (not your current mailing lists) however if you re-import any existing mailing lists as a new import then the sieve function will be initiated on this, irrespective of the fact that the mailing list may have been used in previous campaigns without any previously highlighted issues.

What are the benefits of cleaning my list?

• Save money: Remove unresponsive subscribers that never react to your campaigns or contribute to your return on investment.
• Improve reputation: Your delivery rates and your sender reputation will be remarkably improved by emailing only to clean lists.
• A partner to help you: GraphicMail will take care not to over-cleanse your list and drop any good recipients by mistake.

What if my list gets blocked?

If your mailing list gets blocked then that means it's a bad list. Simply contact our support team as they will give you an indication of why it was blocked and what action you need to take to have it unblocked.

We will do everything possible to help you achieve a clean, opt-in mailing list. This will not only prevent complaints it will also help to better the response from your subscribers.

We are available via livechat, telephone or email.

Got some questions of your own?

As this change is going to happen on Tuesday 25th August, you will likely have some questions so here's some answers to help:

Question: Why are you forcing me to clean my list?
Answer: We are now backed by SMTP Ltd who specialise in email delivery, so although our prices have not changed there are some more rules in terms of your list that you need to follow. These new rules are not there to stop you sending, they are set in place to improve your sending.

Question: What if I don't want to clean my mailing list?
Answer: Unfortunately if you don't want to clean your mailing list then you will not be able to send to your mailing list.

Question: I am importing an existing mailing list with some new contacts but it states I need to clean it, why is this?
Answer: As you are importing your full list again the auto-sieve will check the full list. You may want to try only importing your new contacts.

If you have any questions regarding this then please contact us via email, livechat or telephone.