Building a list of subscribers relevant to and interested in your business or product is a difficult task. There are many varied and creative ways to find contacts. You may be getting contact information in the form of a business card, at a convention. However, the email addresses you have may not all belong to people who want to be contacted about your business or product.
It may be confusing to determine who does and does not want to be contacted. To help you figure this out, take a look at this list of people you may or may not add to your MDC DOT account:
Yes
These people came to you, and asked you to give them this information.
No
Buying a list of anonymous contacts and sending them unsolicited emails is spamming. Uploading one of these lists will result in your account being cancelled with no refund.
To read more about our anti-spam policy and purchased lists, go here or here.
No
They may be interested in doing business, but they are not necessarily interested in receiving your emails or being subscribed to an email campaign.
Before you upload them into your system, you should ask if they would be interested in subscribing to your emails.
No
A connection on a social network is not consent to subscribe to your emails.
Be sure to ask someone explicitly if they would like to be added to a campaign or receive any other emails related to your business or product.
No
This information was given to you for the chance to win the gift card, not to subscribe to your emails.
But here is an alternative scenario:
People subscribe to enter your monthly raffle to win a $100 gift card.
Yes
The scenario is improved because the participants are aware of what you will do with their contact information when they give it to you.
Maybe
Subscribing people to a list a week or a year after they have filled out your forms are two very different situations.
When you give someone your phone number, the longest you are expecting to wait is a few days, maybe even a week. When people opt-in to your webforms, they are also expecting a response within a reasonable time period.
Maybe
If you are exporting people without regard to how you obtained their email addresses, absolutely not.
If you obtained these email addresses from people who have explicitly expressed their desire receive emails from you, then of course.
Yes
These people want to know more about your business and are knowingly giving you their contact information.
No
They asked about your business, but they did not ask to be subscribed to any emails.
Consider including a link to one of your Landing Pages in your signature line or your responses to their emails. By including a link to a Landing Page that has a webform, your visitors will be given the opportunity to learn more about your product or business and fill out a webform to opt in to an email campaign.
Or be sure to ask the person explicitly if they would like to be added to a campaign or receive any other emails related to your business or product.
Maybe
Sure, these people are interested. But are they interested in receiving emails?
They may like following you on your Social Media sites, but that does not mean they want to be contacted via emails as well.
Consider having a link to your Landing Pages on your Social Media sites. By including a link to a Landing Page that has a webform, your visitors will be given the opportunity to learn more about your product or business and fill out a webform to opt in to an email campaign.
Or be sure to ask your followers explicitly if they would like to be added to a campaign or receive any other emails related to your business or product.
If you have read all of these scenarios, and you think that yours is not included here, please contact our Support team via phone or email. You can view our contact information below “Contact Support”.