Let’s take a trip down memory lane, and revisit the internet as it was in 2001.
Most of us were using Internet Explorer to browse the web.
Countless hours were spent chatting with friends on MSN Messenger.
If you wanted to search for something you were likely to go and Ask Jeeves.
And if you wanted to join an online discussion group with people who held similar interests, you joined Yahoo Groups.
A lot has changed in the last 22 years.
What happened to Yahoo Groups?
Yahoo Groups launched on 30th January 2001.
It combined the technology from a business called egroups.com which Yahoo! had recently acquired, with the active communities of Yahoo! Clubs.
It was an immediate success and provided users with an effective way to engage in online discussion groups. Yahoo Groups allowed users to have group chats, share files, share calendars, set up polls and receive regular updates from group members via email.
It was a great way for users across the world to collaborate and keep up with news and opinions on topics close to their hearts.
Consumers gradually moved away from Yahoo Groups and towards more modern alternatives for connecting with friends and sharing interests online.
In 2020, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo Groups would be discontinued. They cited a number of factors, including the costs of maintaining the platform, declining usage and the rise of newer, more popular social media and group messaging platforms.
As one of the earliest platforms for building online communities, Yahoo Groups will always hold a special place in internet history.
The closure of the service was a sad occasion for the remaining loyal users. But it was hardly a surprise.
Many users had already migrated to more modern online community solutions.
Let’s run through some of the modern alternatives to Yahoo Groups and some other email-based solutions for building online communities.
Facebook Groups
Launched in 2010, Facebook Groups was one of the more modern solutions that users began to embrace instead of Yahoo Groups.
Facebook Groups allow any user to create and join groups around a particular interest or topic.
One of the major benefits of the platform is that it uses the standard Facebook interface that many of us are comfortable and familiar with. So there isn’t a huge learning curve to get started.
Facebook Groups also has a wide reach, with it being estimated that more than 1.8 billion people worldwide use the service every month.
But the wide reach and familiarity of the platform create their own disadvantages.
Anyone can set up their own group, and there are often multiple groups for one topic, many of them inactive. Due to the size of the platform, and the wide range of groups available, it can often be challenging for smaller groups to stand out or build a significant following.
Facebook also has an ad-based revenue model, which allows advertisers to target based on interest. So if you’re a member of multiple car enthusiast groups, you can expect to be targeted with more car-related content.
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn is a social networking platform that is designed for professionals.
LinkedIn Groups provide a space for people in the same industry or with the same interests to connect, share news and opinion pieces, and engage in discussions.
Participating in LinkedIn groups can be a great way to showcase your expertise and enthusiasm for a particular industry or topic, and can be particularly effective for making connections that are useful for your own professional development.
But some users find that some groups aren’t effectively moderated on LinkedIn, which can lead to spammers and certain members engaging in a one-way promotion.
Simplelists
At Simplelists, we make group email communication easy.
Our mission is to make it simple for anyone within an organisation to set up an effective group email list without any technical knowledge.
Our solution is simple to manage and maintain, with easy ways to import, move and copy contacts between lists. Setting up eye-catching emails is also a breeze.
There is a whole range of intuitive moderation and configuration options for your group email management, to ensure that you have the control you need over your email list and the messages your subscribers receive, and avoid landing in the spam folder.
Simplelists is also ad-free, so you don’t have to worry about your group emails being interrupted by unwanted ads or promotions.
Google Groups
Google Groups is a free service that has valuable functionality for both businesses and individuals.
From an individual perspective, you’re able to use Google Groups to join email groups and meet people with similar hobbies or interests. It’s a great solution for encouraging group discussions.
For businesses, you can embrace Google Groups to organise meetings and events and set up group mailing lists where you can email a number of people from a single email address.
Some organisations have concerns about the amount of data that Google holds on them, so may choose not to embrace Google Groups through worries over privacy.
Groups.io
Groups.io is an email-based group communication service.
It allows organisations to set up their own email lists for recipients to communicate and collaborate.
It also allows the members to access a comprehensive range of features including:
Calendars
Polls
Databases
Photos
Files
Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn and Google, Groups.io is a paid service, with rates starting from $20 per month based on the number of members within your group.
Groups.io prides itself on having no advertising throughout the platform, and no unnecessary tracking. This should reassure users who are concerned about privacy.
Groups.io also integrates with a lot of commonly used technology such as Zoom, Slack and Trello.
This is really a solution designed for organisations who want their teams or members to collaborate and work together over email. There aren’t currently many public groups.
Gaggle Mail
Another solution that focuses on group communication and collaboration via email, Gaggle Mail is a cloud-based Listserv alternative.
One of the things that makes Gaggle Mail attractive for smaller organisations is that it’s free to set up lists with fewer than 1000 recipients.
So if you’re looking for email-based group communication for your internal teams, you can get up and running with Gaggle Mail quickly and efficiently.
It has all the customisation functionality you’d expect from a comprehensive Listserv solution and seems to have good reports of email deliverability.
The costs do increase quite rapidly after you move past 1000 subscribers, which is something to be mindful of.
With the tool focusing on email group communication, it also doesn’t have chat or supporting functionality like calendars, event planners or polls.
L-Soft Listserv
The original Listserv technology that enables organisations to manage email discussion lists, email newsletters and email marketing campaigns.
L-Soft Listserv is a favourite of Ivy League schools in the USA, who create email groups for students to share information, resources and links when collaborating on a topic or subject.
All email messages are archived, so administrators can see exactly what is being discussed if needed.
With over 35 years of experience in the industry, the team at L-Soft certainly know their stuff about group communication via email.
The one reported downside of L-Soft Listserv is that it can require some technical knowledge to get set up correctly.
Ready to get started with your own groups?
The internet has come a long way since the launch of Yahoo Groups in 2001.
Yahoo! was once the place to go if you wanted to be an active part of an online community, but more modern and effective solutions have emerged over time.
Some of the best modern alternatives to Yahoo Groups include Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, Google Groups, Groups.io, Gaggle Mail, Listserv and Simplelists.
Each platform has its own set of features and benefits. It’s important that you take the time to make the decision that is right for you, based on the specific needs of your organisation.
As Simplelists, our mission is to make group email communication easy. We make it simple for anyone to set up and manage a group email list.
If this sounds like what you’re looking for you’d like to give Simplelists a try for yourself, we have a one-month free trial available.
Are you searching for an efficient, effective and straightforward way to communicate with your team members, students or email subscribers?
Listserv groups might be the answer you’re looking for.
What is a Listserve group and how does it work?
Listserv is a type of email service that allows you to communicate with large groups of people easily and effectively.
By sending an email to one address, a Listserv will automatically distribute a message to all the email addresses that are within an assigned list.
Listserv is actually a trademarked term, owned by L-Soft.
L-Soft were the company behind one of the earliest Listserv group email communication tools. However, Listserv is now broadly used as a term to refer to any type of list-based group email technology.
There are many different applications of Listserv.
If you’re looking to send email marketing messages to your list of subscribers, Listserv can help you do that. You can set up one-way lists (sometimes known as announcement lists) where only administrators of the account can send emails to all members.
But one of the most valuable benefits of Listserv is the ability to encourage collaboration and build a community amongst your subscribers.
By setting up a two-way list (sometimes known as a discussion list) the recipients of your email can reply and have their responses sent to all other members of the list. This makes Listserv great for clubs, universities, and work teams that need an easy way to keep in touch and collaborate.
Another great thing about Listserv technology is that it’s really simple to set up multiple lists. This makes it highly effective for the segmentation of email marketing databases and makes it easy to create lists for different teams within an organisation.
What is a Listserv used for?
Listserv is an easy, effective and affordable option if your organisation wants to communicate with groups of people via email.
You don’t need advanced technical skills to get up and run with Listserv. This makes it a favoured solution across many sports clubs, charities, and educational establishments looking for a solution that’s easy on the finances and is also simple to manage and maintain.
Many enterprise-level organisations also use Listserv as a way to communicate across teams or even reach large numbers of subscribers with their promotional emails.
Collaborative uses of Listserv
One of the most common uses of listserve is for collaboration and discussion between groups of people within a company or an organisation.
Some practical examples of a how Listserv can be used for collaboration and discussion include;
Project management
Listserv is a great way to encourage communication discussion between different team members that are working on a project. It can be used to share project updates, help ensure that everyone is on the same page, and prevent miscommunication.
Brainstorming and idea generation
A Listserv can also be effective in helping groups of people share ideas and feedback within a team.
Sharing ideas via email in a Listserv group can sometimes be more inclusive than having an in-person brainstorming session.
Certain members of the group might feel uncomfortable with public speaking, but more comfortable having the time to type up their ideas and edit them before sharing.
Resource sharing
Listservs can also be used to share documents, spreadsheets, and links to other resources that other members may find valuable. This is often one of the most effective uses of Listserv within educational establishments.
Announcements and broadcast use of Listserv
Another common use of Listserv is for sending announcements and email marketing messages.
For example, a charity may want to send a broadcast email to its subscribers letting them know about recent fundraising efforts. They wouldn’t necessarily want a group discussion about this, so they would use an announcement list rather than a discussion list.
Announcement lists are also commonly used for email marketing, where organisations can send emails to different segments of subscribers to raise awareness, drive traffic to their website and ultimately increase sales.
Listserv VS Distribution List: let’s clarify
Many people confuse the terms ‘Listserv’ and ‘distribution list’. But the difference between the two is actually quite distinct.
Listserv is the name often given to list-based group email technology. A Listserv sends emails to different lists of subscribers.
A distribution list is a name given to a list of email subscribers.
So in summary, Listserv is the name of the technology that sends your emails. A distribution list is the list of people to whom a particular email is sent.
How to create a Listserv: 3 simple steps
Modern Listserv solutions are typically cloud-based and very user-friendly and intuitive. This makes it easy for anyone to access and get up and running.
Choose an efficient Listserv software
Choosing the right Listserv software is an important decision that can impact the success of your email communication strategy.
There are a variety of different Listserv solutions, all with their own different features and benefits. You need to choose the one that is right for you, and your organisation’s needs.
If you’re new to Listserv technology, we’d recommend looking for a solution that is easy to use, allows you to personalise messages, supports HTML email, and has effective archiving capabilities.
You’ll also want to consider the customer support that is available on each solution to help you get the most out of the platform.
At Simplelists, we offer a free trial so you can try out our features and benefits before making your final decision.
Set up your lists
Once you’ve chosen your Listserv provider, it’s time to set up your different lists.
It’s worth nothing that most Listserv solutions will need you to verify that you have all the correct opt-in permissions for any email addresses you upload.
If you’re setting up email marketing lists, consider creating a one-way ‘announcement list’. Think carefully about segmentation. Most Listserv solutions allow you to create unlimited lists. This gives you a lot of opportunities to become really granular with your targeting, but it also needs to be manageable!
If you’re setting up different teams within your organisation and hoping to encourage collaboration, you’ll want to set up two-way ‘discussion lists’.
It’s worth remembering that your team members might not be familiar with Listserv technology, so you might want to put together a quick guide on how everything works.
CSV imports are probably the most common way to bring your data into a Listserv, and are supported by all modern Listserv software providers. Some providers may also link with your CMS or Data Management Platform, to make bringing in data even easier for you.
Put your Email Marketing Strategy into place
Once your lists are in place, it’s time to create your emails.
Most modern Listserv software supports HTML emails. So, if you’re using Listserv for marketing, you’re able to send promotional emails that look eye-catching and professional.
If you’re using Listserv for two-way communication, you’ve got a variety of different options for the moderation of messages from your list members.
It’s possible to set up your Listserv so an administrator has to approve any emails before they reach everyone.
How you approach these settings really depends on the nature of your organisation. Having an administrator approval of messages prevents any irrelevant or inappropriate messages from reaching the group, but it also slows down any real-time collaboration.
Explore Listserv yourself, with a one-month free trial of Simplelists
If you’re searching for an easy and effective way to improve communication with team members, students or subscribers, Listserv could be the solution you’re looking for.
Whether you want to reach a wide number of people with email broadcasts or build collaborative communication amongst different teams - Listserv technology can support you.
There are a variety of different Listserv solutions available, and it’s important that you choose the one that is right for the specific needs of your organisation.
But if you’d like to experience the benefits of Listserv yourself before making a decision, sign up for a one-month free trial at Simplelists.
But these kinds of results don’t happen by accident.
A well-managed mailing list is essential as the foundation of an effective email marketing campaign.
In this article, we’ll discuss email list management best practices for building, segmenting, and personalising your electronic mailing list as well as strategies for keeping it clean and up to date.
What is an electronic mailing list and how does it work?
An electronic mailing list is a collection of email addresses from people that have opted-in and agreed to receive emails from your organization. A healthy email list is important if you want to see success from your email marketing activities.
In the early days of email marketing, it was typical for all the recipients of an electronic mailing list to receive the same message from a business.
But with modern email management solutions, it’s best practice to segment your mailing list using criteria like demographics, location and buying behaviour.
Working with email management solutions that support segmentation enables you to deliver more relevant emails to the recipients on your mailing list and improve the performance of your email marketing.
How to build an email list
Building an email list may feel like a daunting task to some people.
Generating thousands of subscribers is very rarely something that happens overnight. Patience and hard work are key.
We’ve put together a few methods that can help you build your electronic mailing list.
Newsletter sign-up on your website
Make it easy for people that are visiting your website and enjoying your content to sign up to your list.
Have a clear, attention-grabbing call to action that prompts people to sign up. Don’t hide your email list sign-up form at the bottom of your footer!
One email list management best practice is to include the use of modals or slide-in banners on your website that clearly state the benefits of becoming part of your email list, to help prompt engaged site users to sign up.
Social media promotions
Your social media channels can also help you build your email list.
Some channels like LinkedIn and Facebook give you the ability to run ‘lead generation’ ads. With a lead gen ad, a recipient will typically sign up for your email list in exchange for a valuable piece of content you’ve provided.
The success of Lead Gen ads really depends on the value of the content you provide as your ‘lead magnet’, but it can be an effective way to build up email subscribers.
Organic social media can also help you build your list. You might consider running a promotion that encourages your followers to sign up for your newsletter to receive an exclusive discount.
In-person events
If you ever exhibit at trade shows, exhibitions or conferences, make sure to collect email addresses from the people who visit your stand.
To keep data secure, it’s often email list management best practice to use an electronic device like a tablet to collect email addresses in person.
Email list management best practices
Once the number of contacts in your list starts building, there are certain best practices to follow to ensure you get the best out of your email marketing efforts and adhere to all relevant legislation.
Make sure you meet all legal requirements
The most important step in email list management is to make sure you comply with all local legislation.
One of the important things to remember is that you should only process the data for customers that have directly opted into your email list, or that meet another legal basis for processing data under the GDPR.
You should also make it easy for any subscribers to opt out of your email list at any time.
Design an onboarding strategy
When subscribers first join your mailing list, your ‘welcome series’ of emails can really help set the tone for their experience with your organization.
The first email should ideally welcome them to your list and set their expectations for what they are likely to receive from you in the future.
You might use the next two emails to help illustrate your brand story, what makes you unique and the value you offer to customers. You might also introduce your email preference centre at this point, to allow customers to let you know the types of emails they are interested in receiving.
You can then tailor future emails based on the subscribers’ preferences.
Prioritise quality over quantity
Making sure you manage expectations properly and only send emails that are relevant to subscribers is the key to building long-lasting relationships with the people on your email list.
Sending a high volume of emails to an audience that is uninterested and disengaged is likely to lead to high spam reports and high unsubscribes. These are both things that can impact your email deliverability.
Sending emails that are highly relevant to each recipient is the secret to developing a healthy email list. You can achieve this through personalization and segmentation in your mailing list manager.
Personalise your emails and campaigns
By including personalized details such as the recipient’s name, or the products they have recently shown an interest in, you can build a more personal connection with the people on your email list.
Personalisation can also improve the performance of your emails.
A study by Campaign Monitor found that people were 26% more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines. So personalization within your email list manager is important.
Segment your email list
Segmentation is one of the most important things you can do to optimise the performance of your emails and maintain a healthy email list.
By tailoring your emails to your subscribers’ details and preferences, you can deliver more targeted content that really resonates with them. This will increase the relevancy and lead to more opens, clicks and conversions, as well as reduce spam complaints.
Common segmentation methods for email list management best practices include:
Demographics (age, gender)
Location
Purchase behaviour
Interests
Stage in the customer lifecycle
Make it easy to unsubscribe
Including an easy, simple way to unsubscribe from your emails is necessary if you’re going to comply with current legislation.
Including an easy unsubscribe has the additional benefit of reducing the number of spam complaints which can have a positive impact on your overall deliverability.
Deal with inactive subscribers
Your sender reputation matters in email marketing.
If you continue to send emails to inactive subscribers on your email list, you are artificially reducing your own open rate.
If a subscriber is inactive for a period of time consider sending them a re-engagement email to try and encourage them to start interacting with your email again. This might include a personalized message such as “We miss you!...” with an incentive like an offer or promotion to get them opening and clicking through.
If the recipient doesn’t engage with this approach, you might consider moving them to an ‘inactive’ segment or removing them from your list completely.
Let users manage their preferences
Preference management is another email list management best practice that allows your subscribers to have control over the frequency and types of emails they receive.
Your subscribers should ideally be prompted to update their preferences in your email preference centre during their onboarding stage and reminded at regular intervals.
By understanding how often recipients want to be contacted and the type of email they would like to receive, you can improve your relevancy and overall email performance.
Track your results
You should keep an eye on important metrics like bounces and undeliverable messages, and take steps to remove these records from your database.
Tracking your email marketing results is also important for understanding what works and what doesn’t.
You should also ensure that any links in your emails have the correct tracking parameters for your chosen analytics platform. This can help you measure things like dwell time and the conversions that come from each of your emails
Some mailing list management platforms can also help you understand metrics such as open rates, click-through rates and the performance of different elements of your emails which can help you optimise even further and make data-driven decisions to improve your email campaigns.
What about using email list software?
Choosing the right email list software is important for helping you to effectively manage your email subscriber list.
It’s important to choose a mailing list manager that can help support you with subscriber forms, segmentation, and the analysis of important deliverability data.
At Simplelists, we pride ourselves on making email list management easy.
We’ve got everything you need to set up, build, and manage an effective electronic mailing list. And it’s simple for anyone to get started.
A mailing list is a collection of email addresses from people that are interested in receiving updates via email from an organisation.
How you choose to engage with the subscribers on your mailing lists really depends on the requirements of your organisation.
Some organisations use mailing lists for marketing purposes. They might send targeted email newsletters or promotional emails to help raise awareness or drive sales of their products or services.
But mailing lists can also be used to prompt discussion amongst subscribers and build a sense of support and community between the members of your list.
In this short article, we’ll look at some of the common usages of mailing lists and the different ways of using them within your mailing list manager.
What is the purpose of a mailing list?
By working with a mailing list in your list manager, your organisation can reach a large group of interested people with a single email.
Broadcasting to mailing lists can often be a cost-effective way for organisations to deliver an email marketing message to their target audience. Email marketing often has an attractive return on investment (ROI) compared to other marketing channels.
Depending on the quality of subscriber data you have within your mailing list, you can also personalise your email marketing communications and create a more relevant experience for your customers.
This can improve engagement and generate leads and sales from your broadcast emails.
But mailing lists are not only useful for email marketing.
They can also be used to generate discussion between members around a particular topic.
Two-way discussion mailing lists enable subscribers to reply to emails. It’s also possible for replies to be sent to all other subscribers.
This can help with collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and resources and can also help to develop a sense of community between the members of your list.
The use of two-way mailing lists can also help businesses gather customer feedback and insights to help improve their products and services.
What are the different communication settings with a mailing list?
There are a number of different configurations that you can use with your mailing lists on your mailing list manager.
1. One-Way Announcement (Broadcast)
If you choose to set up a one-way mailing list, only your organisation can send messages to the subscribers.
Subscribers are not able to reply to or initiate a conversation with you, and there is no ability to generate a group discussion with other members of the list.
A one-way list is ideal when you have a message you want to communicate but don’t want a discussion around it.
Examples of the practical use of one-way mailing lists include:
A promotional email from a clothing business, advertising their winter sale.
An email newsletter from a solicitor, which includes current news from the legal world.
A customer service notice from a broadband company advising and apologising for outages.
An email from a charity providing an update on their fundraising efforts.
2. Two-Way Discussion
Another type of mailing list is the two-way discussion list.
This is where both your organisation and your subscribers are allowed to post messages that will reach other members of the list.
Two-way discussion lists are typically used for encouraging conversation and collaboration.
Examples of two-way mailing lists include:
An internal team within a business, who need to discuss an ongoing project.
Volunteers within a charity who need to collaborate on an event.
Students who have signed up to a particular module and want to share resources and ideas.
Members of a book club who want to share their thoughts on the books they read.
Athletes within a sports club who want to share schedules, training plans and upcoming events.
3. Moderated Two-Way Discussion
The third type of mailing list is a moderated two-way discussion list.
A moderated list is almost identical to a two-way list, except a moderator within your organisation will review all the user generated messages before deciding whether they will be sent to all subscribers or not.
This helps you maintain a level of control over the content and the quality of the messages being sent to your subscribers, whilst still enabling communication and collaboration between members.
The benefits of running a moderated mailing list includes:
Avoiding off-topic or irrelevant messages
Avoiding spam, and making sure that subscribers aren’t abusing the list to promote their own products or services.
Avoiding inappropriate or offensive messages and making sure the conversation remains positive and respectful.
Are you ready to engage with your mailing list?
A mailing list can be a powerful tool for helping organisations communicate with their audience.
Whether you are looking to raise awareness, drive sales or build a sense of community, a mailing list can help you achieve your goals.
With a variety of communication settings, you can adjust your mailing list strategy to suit the needs of your organisation.
If you’re curious about the benefits of engaging with your mailing list, sign up for a free one-month trial of the Simplelists mailing list manager
In the digital communication landscape, email is one of the most traditional channels.
Nonetheless, in recent years, an increasing number of people have questioned whether email is still so necessary – or could be potentially replaced with less time-consuming marketing tactics.
Indeed, several new forms of communication have emerged over the years, mostly in the social media landscape, where the automation tools appear to be more user-friendly and simple-to-use than designing a lead generation and email marketing strategy from scratch.
Despite this, email marketing continues to grow in popularity and is a sure bet for ROI success.
Consider this: for every dollar spent on email marketing, you can expect an average ROI of $40 (source: Omnisend)!
However, approaching an email marketing campaign – particularly a group email one – without relying on a powerful mailing list tool can force you to deal with security, GDPR, and management issues that can seriously undermine your efforts and results.
This is why today we’ll look at:
What email marketing really entails in today’s business landscape;
The key advantages of an effective email marketing strategy – such as the possibility to segment your target audience and personalize your message;
How a user-friendly and powerful email marketing tool, such as Simplelists, can make the difference.
Let’s investigate further!
What is email marketing?
Email marketing, in a nutshell, is a digital marketing strategy that entails sending emails to a specific group of people to promote a newsletter, event, offer, product, or service.
Consider that by 2025, the number of email users worldwide is expected to reach 4.6 billion (source: Statista) – accounting for more than half of the world population, – with over 375 billion emails expected to be sent and received each day.
That’s why, to make the most of it, businesses typically create a list of email addresses collected via ad hoc lead generation forms, in order to:
Efficiently track and analyze their efforts, including using the right automation tools;
Better understand their target audience;
Focus on consent, segmentation, and personalization, abandoning the outdated outbound approach.
Nevertheless, email marketing can’t be a stand-alone tactic, but rather a component of a larger marketing strategy that includes other channels – such as pay-per-click, SEO, and social media.
So, let’s quickly compare a few different channels:
Social Media Marketing: Social media allows businesses to interact and build relationships with their potential customers, but the competition is fierce. Their ROI varies depending on the platforms’ algorithm, but it is typically $2.80.
Search Engine Optimization: With a ROI of $22.24, SEO is an essential tool for any business, because ranking higher on search engines means being more easily found by the potential customers.
Pay-per-click Advertising: PPC ads have an average ROI of about $17 and they help businesses leverage their search engine visibility. However, this is not a one-to-one channel, but rather an advertising tactic. Indeed, 64% of people believe that basic ads are frequently intrusive and annoying (Source: Optinmonster).
Email Marketing: With a stunning ROI of $40, email offers a better conversion rate than any social media channel, as well as a higher degree of personalization and audience segmentation. In the long run, in fact, an email strategy helps building a community of loyal customers and is the most profitable and cost-effective direct marketing channel for moving customers through the purchasing cycle.
As you can see, email is still the most effective digital marketing channel, and a combination of SEO, social, PPC, and email marketing can really help you easily build the most powerful digital marketing strategy – where email can enhance all the other channels, allowing you to retain and communicate with your customers individually.
Let’s take a closer look at the key email marketing benefits!
4 Major Email Marketing Benefits
Personalized Targeting
Have you ever felt frustrated and overwhelmed while attempting to segment your target audience and personalize their message?
A non-personalized approach – whether through ads, messages, or posts – can have a negative impact on your marketing strategy and result in:
Lower engagement and conversion rates, as you won’t be able to address your potential leads’ specific needs, making it difficult to pique their interest and convert them into customers.
Higher costs, because a one-size-fits-all approach would necessitate more resources to reach a broader audience;
Inefficient customer loyalty, as personalization and segmentation are the foundations for building a relationship with customers.
So, why can a proper email marketing strategy – with the help of an efficient email marketing software – help you avoid such risks?
The answer is simple: The key is personalization, which is at the heart of mail marketing.
People, in fact, appreciate it when brands add personal touches to their messages – and email marketing, by definition, allows you to segment your target audience into specific lists that are based on different demographic or psychographic criteria, as well as easily get direct feedback.
A personalized email strategy, in fact, can drive more conversions than any other digital channel – with 66% of online consumers making a purchase as a result of an email marketing message (source: Monetate) – and it is much more efficient if it’s based on a well segmented opted-in list.
You might think it’s easier said than done at this point...
Please, hold on! If you want to segment and personalize your email lists based on various criteria, you should use an efficient email marketing platform.
We at Simplelists understand exactly how such a tool can make a difference for businesses of all sizes. That’s why our group email software includes features dedicated to email customization and segmentation, ranging from multiple lists management to styling.
All of these features would provide you with a full hosting service and management that eliminates the need for you to worry about technical details!
Sales and Lead Generation
As above-mentioned, email marketing clearly has enormous potential for enhancing sales and driving lead generation.
Indeed, if you rely solely on social media or search ads to increase sales, you should be aware that while these channels can help you attract new visitors – and reach a larger number of people at once, – they cannot always help you retain customers or nurture relationships with them.
On the other hand, email would give your company a direct channel to reach out to potential customers and nurture the relationship throughout every stage of the buyer’s journey.
To name a few, email marketing can help you leverage sales in the following ways:
Generating new leads through the creation of a well-structured landing page and opt-in form, allowing you to collect email addresses from both website, social, or ads, to then build a targeted email list that can really make a difference during new product launches;
Lead nurturing and helping leads move through the sales funnel by sending them highly targeted and personalized messages based on their interests and purchase habits, such as special birthday offers, welcome discounts, or abandoned cart emails, in order to create a one-to-one relationship and stimulate the brand loyalty;
Promoting new products, services, or business events through the right email campaign, including powerful calls to action and multimedia content.
As you can see, there are numerous approaches to driving sales through email marketing.
However, all of them would benefit greatly from using an email list management tool like Simplelists.
As a matter of fact, there are several technical details that can make you waste time and effort when segmenting and personalizing your email strategy, going from the design of landing pages to email footers, and email moderation.
What our clients appreciate most about our simple tool is that it allows them to quickly address all of these issues in no time by allowing them to easily customize their emails, subscription forms, footers, and even posting restrictions.
Whatever the size of your company, this can save you a lot of time and resources to devote to your sales or business strategy!
Would you like to learn more about how Simplelists can help you save time, money, and resources? Check out our YouTube channel!
Fidelization and Remarketing
Another significant advantage of email marketing is that it allows businesses to retain and engage existing customers, encouraging repeat business and driving visitors back to websites.
This is because the use of targeted and personalized offers allows for a one-to-one relationship, which gives birth to a proper customer retention and remarketing strategy that can engage customers who have previously:
Purchased your products or services;
Visited your website, blog, or landing pages;
Abandoned their online cart.
Indeed, did you know that sending three abandoned cart emails generates 69% more orders? (source: Omnisend).
However, fidelizing a customer means being present and providing a timely newsletter in order to be perceived as also an expert in your industry. In fact, retaining a customer entails more than selling products or notifying abandoned carts, but also sharing educational content.
With the right strategy, email drives customer loyalty and becomes a necessary channel to use in conjunction with:
A sales CRM system to streamline communication;
An email list management tool to speed up the email delivery process.
Timely Campaigns
Have you ever struggled to find the right channels and times to effectively reach your target audience?
This happens to almost every business.
Selecting the most appropriate channels for a specific campaign in a constantly evolving tech market can be extremely difficult and may depend on a variety of factors.
In fact, while a B2B company may find their target on LinkedIn, a B2C retailer may prefer Instagram or TikTok. However, there is one thing that all business types have in common: email marketing.
Email is unquestionably one of the digital channels that allows anyone to create a truly timely campaign to support the:
Promotion of events, including workshops and webinars;
Seasonal campaigns and product launches;
Time-limited offers, such as discounts or free shipping, which create a sense of urgency and encourages impulsive buying;
Trend-based campaigns which are based on popular topics.
Having said that, it’s clear that email campaigns can help you reach the right people at the right time, providing far more value to the target audience.
Why use Simplelists for your Email Marketing Strategy?
Last but not least, we’d like to show you how Simplelists, our user-friendly email list tool, can truly help you reap the benefits of email marketing by allowing you to:
Let’s take a closer look at why you should use Simplelists for email marketing!
It’s user-friendly
Simplelists, as the name implies, is a truly simple tool that doesn’t require you to be techie to understand and use its interface.
You can simply write an email and send it to everyone on your list with a few clicks, saving you a lot of time and money, and freeing up time for other business tasks!
Keeps your emails out of spam
Spam filters are one of the most difficult aspects of building an email list.
To emphasize the significance of selecting the right tool, we can tell you that segmented and effective email marketing campaigns can result in a 760% increase in overall revenue (source: DMA).
So, to ensure that you get the best results possible, our tool includes a dedicated email delivery feature that gives you access to:
Email delivery reports, which include full receipt information on successful and unsuccessful email deliveries;
Email delivery failures, which help you track all bounces and drawbacks.
No adverts!
Would you like to get rid of advertising?
This is one of the major disadvantages of using free email marketing tools or providers that typically place advertisements in your emails.
It is not only annoying, but it may cause your emails to:
Go directly to your subscribers’ spam folders;
Be perceived as spammy;
Shift the focus from your content to the ads.
That is why Simplelists emails are free of advertisements and allow you to send the most professional and effective messages!
Lets you send HTML emails
Finally, another way you could use Simplelists to improve your email marketing campaigns is by designing and sending eye-catching HTML emails.
Our tool, in fact, will not limit you to the use of preset templates, but will allow you to easily customize and create your emails the way you want, so that you can:
Reflect your branding;
Gain more design control;
Send more engaging, safe, and trackable emails.
Conclusions
As we’ve seen today, developing a valuable marketing strategy can be difficult and time-consuming.
Emails provide numerous benefits, ranging from lead generation to remarketing and branding, but only through the use of a valuable email list tool you can make a difference for your company and achieve the desired results.
That’s a lot of emails! And with so many being sent and received every day, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the process of managing them all — especially if you’re responsible for sending them out too.
Group email services can make it easier to manage your email communications and can also help you manage your business more efficiently.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the benefits of using a group email service and what they can do for you.
What is a group email?
Imagine a world where you can send an email to clients, customers, colleagues, members, family and even friends in a single click!
With group email, you can do just that. But what is a group email and how can it be useful?
Your group email list can be created when multiple users are subscribed to the same email list.
This email distribution list can then be used to promote your company’s product or service and share your latest newsletter or content all in one go.
Benefits of using a group email
Managing large groups of contacts
Managing multiple workflows
Scheduling emails
Group emails are an extremely effective way to communicate with your network and build relationships. Keeping people up-to-date on what’s happening in your business, and helping you stay in touch with your community.
Common uses for group email
Inform customers about new products and promotions
Send out newsletters with company news and updates
Communicate with colleagues in other departments
Notify employees about upcoming meetings
There’s no denying that It’s a great way to get your message out there, but it’s also important that you choose the right audience for your group email.
If your message isn’t relevant or interesting enough for the people on your list, they won’t open it and may delete it without reading it.
Want to know how to avoid this?
Many businesses now use group email services as part of their email marketing tools but finding the right service can be hard. In our next sections, we’ll show you how to get the best out of a group email list and top group email marketing tools.
5 reasons why you should opt for a group email list
As a successful business, you know that communication is key and building relationships with customers is essential.
The easiest way to do this is opting for a group email list that will allow you to:
Build a rapport
Generate leads
Create brand awareness
Send/receive feedback
Whether you have a business or a cause, odds are you have a group email list at your disposal.
So you’re all set and you’ve created the perfect email marketing campaign geared toward the right audience, and you’re ready to blast it out to your subscribers.
But have you ensured that your subscribers are going to receive your emails?
If not, they will bounce and end up in the trash/spam folder, which will hurt your chances of a decent ROI.
Here is some important advice and available features of Simplelists email management software to ensure your emails are delivered, rather than thrown away.
If you’re short on time and would prefer to watch it, have a look at our short video explaining Simplelists group email features.
1. Automated and free email list management
List management is a crucial and challenging aspect of email marketing. It can be as simple as having a few email addresses, or as complex as managing a database of thousands of subscribers.
For many businesses, managing your own group email list is not only cost-effective but also gives you complete control over the data. However, it’s not always easy to set up and maintain an efficient mailing list management system.
A useful feature to have is automated bounce processing and removal from your database.
This means if someone unsubscribes from your newsletter or sends back an undeliverable message (bounce), you are notified and this is then handled automatically by the service. So you don’t have to worry about manually removing them from your list anymore, keeping delivery rates high!
The advantage of an email list manager is that it allows you to have a clear overview of your subscribers and manage your lists more efficiently. Keeping track of your contacts, filtering them according to their actions and interests, and managing your list to send out the right messages to the right people at the right time.
You should also be able to automatically forward your emails to other people or groups. For example, if someone clicks on a link in one of your emails, they can be automatically added to another list (e.g. if they want to receive offers about a specific product).
There are many reasons why you might be looking for automated email list management software. Whether it be to reduce manual work and focus on more important things or handle the influx of new subscribers.
2. Customisable group email list
A customisable group email list is an important feature to have in any business.
Email Marketing is a powerful marketing tool that can be used to build brand awareness and increase sales. However, you need to make sure that your email is personalised, consistent and relevant to each recipient.
In order to address these challenges, you will want to use an email list management tool that allows you to create customised email lists.
The biggest benefit of this feature is that you can have a customisable group email list. This means that you can add your own personalised footer or footer text, members’ names, HTML for full customisation and so forth.
You can also choose to archive old emails which can be accessed in the archives section of your account. This is useful if you need to delete old emails or if you want to keep them as backups.
3. Full manage spam reporting
Spam is very common nowadays, so it is important to have a group email service that can handle your spam issues.
Not only is it annoying to have your inbox flooded with messages you don’t want to read, but it also wastes time and money.
In addition to providing tools for sending emails and tracking their results, your group email list services should provide tools for managing your email lists in real time with automatic spam management.
This means that when your email is marked as spam by a contact in your list (whether deliberately or accidentally!), those addresses of people who have reported this are automatically removed.
They then will receive no further emails from the list and prevent them from repeatedly marking it as spam. Keeping your ‘marked as spam rate’ low, delivery rates high and your email list up to date on who wants to see and receive your valuable information.
Keeping your messaging consistent with clear brand design, tone and information will help to keep you out of the spam box or mass unsubscribing.
4. Subscribe and unsubscribe options
Email subscribers are a valuable asset. They’re customers who have opted in to receive your marketing messages, giving you a direct line to them.
But if you don’t have the right permission settings in place, you could be breaking data protection laws and putting your business at risk.
You want to make sure your subscribers know how they can manage their own subscriptions and communication preferences.
You need to give them the option to unsubscribe from your mailing list at any time. In the past, customers had to follow complicated processes to unsubscribe from an email list.
Today, this can be done by setting subscribe and unsubscribe settings, plus the ease of adding a customisable subscribe form to your website.
With these simple adjustments, you’ll be in line with GDPR to give consumers more control over their data.
5. Private group email list
In business privacy is paramount, so having the function to create a private group email list is a must-have.
If you’re sending out information about a new product launch, for example, it’s important that only those who need to know about it get the information.
This feature allows you to create a private group where only you can see the members of your list. This is particularly useful if you want to send out information about a product pre-launch, private event or meeting.
With a private group email list, only you see their emails with no way for anyone outside of your organisation to see who else is on your list or what they are receiving from you in their inboxes.
This means that no one else will get access to your database and you can also remove members from the group email list whenever you want.
The best group email marketing tools
The email marketing landscape is constantly changing, nowadays, business is not just about selling products. Customers expect brands to provide value by sending them educational content or useful tips too.
You realise you need a group email marketing tool, and there are many tools out there to help you reach your audience. However, not all of them are created equal.
Some of them may seem too complex for your needs or too expensive for your budget. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help you choose the right tool for your business.
What makes one group email marketing tool better than another?
The answer is simple: features and usability. Here are some features we consider when reviewing them:
Easy to use
Integration
Limitations
Automation
Customisation
Data
Support
Price
This list will help you find the best email marketing software for your business needs:
Simplelists
Simplelists is easy to use and has an intuitive interface that makes creating lists and sending emails a snap.
Simplelists is a user-friendly email marketing tool that allows you to quickly create lists and send emails to your subscribers. It also has a responsive design, so it works well on mobile devices — especially important in today’s world where mobile internet usage continues to rise year after year.
Intended to be both affordable and powerful, you can create a list in minutes and send an email campaign, promotion, newsletter or discussion group in a matter of seconds.
Our features are so simple, anyone can use them. No technical knowledge is required!
With all Simplelists subscriptions, you can easily:
Manage members / list import
Set restrictions
Customise emails
Control subscriptions
Message scheduling
Integrate with your website
Archive emails
Automated list management
Spam & bounce management & feedback loops
Keep emails and contacts secure (ISO27001 certification)
View data and analytics
Whether you want to send a single list or multiple, Simplelists plans range from $8 pcm for a single list to $686 for enterprise-level and plenty of affordable packages in between.
They have a super-friendly and responsive support team that can help you with anything from getting started to managing your account.
Listserv
Listserv is an email list management solution, offered as an in-house software or cloud service.
Listserv allows users to manage email communications such as alerts, newsletters and discussion groups from a central interface.
Providing flexible licensing to meet current and future business needs, Listserv have technical support to help you get your group email list running smoothly.
With Listserve you have:
Manage members
Set restrictions
Customise emails (not with the basic plan)
Control subscriptions
Message scheduling (not with the basic plan)
Integrate with your website
Archive emails (restricted with the basic plan)
Automated list management
Spam & bounce management (restricted with the basic plan)
View data and analytics (not with the basic plan)
Listserv offers perpetual and annual licenses with three plans available, Lite (perpetual only), Classic and HPO. Starting from $1,095 - $4,485 for annual licenses or $2,875 - $28,060 for perpetual.
GroupMail
GroupMail is a free email list and mass email newsletter software.
An easy-to-use group email messaging system that’s great for newsletters, event planning, personal announcements, and more.
You can download their free software to begin sending in seconds. With varied, one-time paid software subscriptions you’re able to:
Manage members/ list import
Set restrictions
Customise emails (marketing plan only)
Control subscriptions
Message scheduling (not with the basic plan)
Archive emails
Automated list management (not with the basic plan)
Spam & bounce management (not with the basic plan)
View data and analytics (marketing plan only)
GroupMail also has the possibility to be installed in English, Spanish, French, German or Polish and the added ability to create autoresponders. They have three packages ranging from $149.95 to $699.95 excl VAT.
Conclusion
After reading and exploring features, requirements and price plans of group email marketing tools, you’ll notice that when it comes to effective marketing, sometimes the best option is the simplest one.
In short, there are a lot of reasons why you should (and probably will) use a group email list. Not only are they easy to set up and maintain, but they’ll also help get your content in front of a larger audience than ever before.
Whether you run an online store, a work-related business or a creative hub, using an email list can help you really make the most out of it.
If you’re running a business, sports club, charity or educational establishment, you’ll understand how important effective communication and collaboration is.
In the modern digital world it seems like there are countless ways to collaborate online, whether it’s via WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups, Slack channels or Discord servers.
But sometimes you want something that is affordable, professional, uses established technology that everyone has access to, and has the benefit of having all messages archived for future reference.
If this sounds like what you’re looking for, you might benefit from using a Listserv.
Listserv: your group communication ally
A listserv is a type of email service that allows a group of people to communicate via email.
By sending an email to one email address, it will automatically be sent to all the people who have signed up to be part of the Listserv.
This makes it a great way for groups of people to easily share information, collaborate, and stay connected.
LISTSERV® is actually a registered trademark of L-Soft, who created one of the earliest and most popular Listserv group email communication tools. But the term ‘Listserv’ is now synonymous with any list-based group email technology.
Think about it in the same way that people refer to a sticky note as a Post-it® note, or a hot tub as a Jacuzzi®.
When we’re talking about Listserv in this article, we’re referring to the commonly used term for the technology.
What are the major benefits of a Listserv?
Easy to set up
Listservs are relatively easy to set up.
Most modern Listserv software is user-friendly and doesn’t require advanced technical skills or development teams to get things up and running.
And once it’s set up, modern Listservs are typically simple to manage and maintain.
Easy to build a community amongst your subscribers
A Listserv provides an effective way for your subscribers to share their ideas and knowledge and collaborate on projects.
This can lead to a greater sense of community among group members.
Cost-effective
Listservs are incredibly affordable. This is one of the things that makes the technology so attractive for small businesses, sports clubs and charities.
Customisable
A Listserv can also be customised to suit the specific needs of each email group.
Some groups might benefit from receiving each individual message to the email address. Others might benefit from receiving a daily or weekly digest of the messages sent to the group.
Archiving
Listservs automatically archive all messages. This makes it easy to search and retrieve important information at a later date if needed.
Subscription management
You’re able to set up a Listserv so that members can easily subscribe or unsubscribe themselves. This can make it easier to manage your email list.
Organically grow your email list
By providing a platform for discussion and collaboration, your subscribers may choose to forward messages from the Listserv with others that they think would be interested in the content.
Your engaged community can help you attract new subscribers.
Additionally, most Listserv technology can be easily integrated with your website. This can make it easy for people to sign up to your email list and begin receiving your content.
Who can benefit from using a Listserv?
Listserv technology is suitable for any organisation that wants to reach targeted groups of people with their message and potentially prompt a group email discussion.
We’ve put together a small list of the types of organisations that might benefit from Listserv and some ways they might use it.
Businesses: Collaborating with internal teams
Listservs can be a great way for businesses to keep their teams connected and aligned on important projects.
You might set up a mailing list for each department or project team so they can share updates, discuss upcoming milestones or review current performance. This can help boost productivity and improve decision making.
Businesses: Email marketing
Listservs can also be a powerful tool for businesses to reach their customers and prospects.
By creating a mailing list of opted-in email addresses, businesses can send targeted messages, promotions and updates to a large number of people at once.
This can help increase brand awareness and drive sales.
Most modern Listserv solutions can support HTML email, so you can still send emails that look eye-catching and compelling.
Sports Clubs
Listservs can be a great low-cost solution for sports clubs to keep their members in the loop on upcoming events, practice schedules and team news. By allowing members to reply to the group and start discussions, it can really help foster a sense of community and bring the team together.
Charities
By using a Listserv, charities can keep their supporters informed about their work and upcoming events. They can also be used internally between volunteers and management to help co-ordinate events and discuss fundraising strategies.
Education
A Listserv can provide an easy and effective way to send out announcements, assignments, and other information. They can also be used for class discussion, managing group projects, and sharing resources.
Event planning
Listservs can be a great way for event planners to coordinate conferences, meetings, and workshops with their subscribed attendees.
How to create a Listserv in a few simple steps
Choose the right Listserv software
There are many different types of Listserv software available, each with their own different features and benefits.
We’d recommend making a list of the things that are important to you in your chosen software, whether that’s cost, ease of use, deliverability of emails or customer support.
By understanding what is most important to you, you’ll be able to choose the software that best meets your needs and has the features you require.
Complete a simple setup process
Once you’ve made your decision on the software you’re going to use, it’s time to set up your Listserv.
Every solution will have a slightly different set up process, but the typical steps will involve creating an account, choosing a name for your Listserv, and configuring your settings.
The settings that are most important are the level of moderation, the type of messages that are allowed, the subscription process, and what types of attachments (if any) are permitted.
With modern Listserv technology the setup process is easy and user-friendly, so don’t worry if you’re not tech-savvy.
Import your email contact list
Once your Listserv is set up and configured the way you want it, you can start adding members.
A common way to do this is by importing a CSV of your email contact list. Most Listserv software will need you to agree that the contacts have all opted-in to email communication, in line with relevant data privacy legislation.
You can also add your Listserv sign up to your website and other channels at this point, to help the organic growth of your subscriber list.
Send your content
Now that your Listserv is set up and has members, you can start creating content, sending messages, and setting up discussion threads.
It’s really that easy!
Interested in exploring the power of Listserv?
After reading this article, you’ll understand the potential applications of Listserv and you might even be excited by the ideas of how you might use Listserv within your organisation.
But the only way to truly appreciate the power of Listserv is to try it out for yourself.
At Simplelists, we offer all our customers a one-month free trial of our service.
By trying Simplelists for free, you can discover first-hand how Listserv email can benefit your organisation.
Two of the most popular reasons that our customers use Simplelists are as a listserve and for email marketing. However, these are not the only things you can use it for. We have designed Simplelists to be flexible so that you can complete a range of tasks. Here are some of the key ones.
Managing your email list
You can upload your email list members to Simplelists in bulk, directly from a file. If you have a lot of list members, this saves you time as you can export the list details to a file and upload it in seconds.
You can also download your list. We recognise that your email list is your property and we make it really easy for you to generate a copy of your email list. You can download your whole list of members into a file that can be opened in a spreadsheet.
Setting permissions
It is very easy to set posting permissions in Simplelists. This means that you can select who can send emails to your list. You might choose to enable this for all members, select some members, or make yourself the sole person with the permission to post to the list.
You can also moderate messages that are due to be sent to your list. You have several options: no moderation required (messages are sent straight to the members of your list), hold all messages for approval, or allow specific members to post without needing your approval first.
You might want to manage replies as well - you can select whether email replies are sent to everyone on the list or only to the person who sent the original email.
Setting posting restrictions can be useful if you permit other members to send emails to your list. This would ensure they don’t send very large emails, for example. You can set a maximum email size (in kB), remove attachments, strip HTML formatting and/or truncate messages to a specified maximum number of characters.
Finally, you may or may not want to allow your list members to see who else is on the list. Again, you have options - you can allow members to view all names and emails, allow them to see names only, or remove the ability to see names or emails.
Customise your emails
With Simplelists, it is very easy to customise your emails by including a personalised footer and a subject prefix. You can include HTML in the footer so your members can see graphics or logos. Or, you can use HTML throughout the email for complete customisation. You can also personalise your emails by inserting each recipient’s name at the start.
You can archive all your emails. When you activate this feature, all emails will be stored on a custom website so that you can access them in the future. You can set a password for the archive, if you wish.
A healthy email list is important to ensure that you can contact a range of clients and drive success in your business. If you are already using Simplelists for email marketing, this won’t come as a surprise. If you are just starting a business, developing a list of contacts or ‘members’ can be challenging, especially when your customers are receiving other marketing messages in their inbox and becoming more sensitive to spam. Nevertheless, there are some effective ways to build a list of relevant members who will want to receive your emails.
Ensure that it is easy for people to sign up
There are plenty of ways to encourage people to sign up or 'opt-in’ to receiving your emails. If you put a subscribe form on your website, make sure it looks ‘clean’ and matches the rest of the site. Place the form towards the top of the page, and add some text to explain why they should sign up. You can create a subscribe form using Simplelists, if you wish. It is best not to ask for too much information at this stage – an email address is all you need. Asking for a first name as well will allow you to personalise your emails when you contact them.
You could also consider placing a subscribe form at the end of blog posts, in your site’s footer, or on your ‘About’ page. You can also use social media to encourage people to sign up and/or visit your website. Writing guest blogs with a sign-up form in them can also work well.
Sign up at the point of sale or when completing other forms
If your website/product requires people to set up an account or fill in a form on your website, you could also build in an email list sign-up into this process. Try to ensure that the reason for registering is clear though, and relevant to your target audience. You could make it as simple as including a check box that reads ‘Subscribe to our mailing list?’ that they can check when registering.
Word of mouth and events work well
You may like to offer those people who have been on your list for a while a small incentive or discount that might encourage them to tell others about your site/product. Make sure you ask for the friend’s email address and first name (again, to allow personalisation).
Make sure they know what to expect
It is good practice to make sure that your customers know exactly what to expect when they subscribe to your list. You should let them know what to expect with regards email frequency and content, and reassure them that they can unsubscribe at any time. It is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the law surrounding email marketing so that you don’t break any of the rules.
Using Simplelists - a group email manager - means you can send emails to a group of people via one email address. This is a great way to have private discussions via email in a way that ensures list members’ preferences are adhered to (e.g. how frequently they receive messages). Lots of businesses and organisations find that sharing information in this way can foster community in the workplace. This short post explains in some more detail how the service works and what benefits it offers.
How does it work?
First, members need to subscribe to the discussion list. They can do this on a website (see an earlier post on how to add a subscribe form to your website) or via email. It is then possible for any member to post to the whole list by emailing a particular, automated email address.
You can set permissions so that only certain members can post, or enable an approval process so that each post needs to be moderated by an administrator before going out to the whole list (read more here about how to set permissions). Normally, you would have one or more 'list managers’ who take charge of the list and tend to have a good level of knowledge about what the discussion is all about.
Making things personal
It is possible for list members to personalise how they interact with the list. For example, they might have an email format preference (HTML or plain text), or they might want to stipulate how often they receive emails from the list. There is also the option to receive a digest summary of the latest posts, instead of receiving them individually as and when they are posted.
You can also customise the email itself, perhaps including a company logo or a directing email recipients to a bespoke landing page within your website.
Getting through
Today, most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have limits on the number of email addresses that you can send an email to. If you exceed the number, the email will not be delivered to the recipient. If recipients report your emails as spam, this can also affect whether or not the message gets through.
A lot of people still prefer receiving an email personalised to their needs rather than visiting a website to search for information. Over half of all internet users subscribe to at least one email list. For those with slow internet connections or who work offline at intervals, being able to download, read and reply to emails rather than interact in real time can be a real bonus.
