Email list hosting service & mailing list manager

How to Build an Email List

Posted on Oct 23, 2023

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In the digital age, email remains a powerful tool for businesses to communicate with their audience and drive engagement. Building an email list is a crucial step in leveraging this tool, enabling your business to reach its target audience directly, foster strong customer relationships, and boost overall marketing effectiveness.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll show you how to build an email list, discuss the pros and cons of an email list, explore various methods to grow your email list, and delve into the potential of email distribution list services.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear roadmap for building an effective email list for your business. Let’s dive in!

What is an email list?

An email list, at its core, is a powerful marketing tool. It consists of a curated collection of email addresses that a business amasses over time from visitors to its website, typically those who express a vested interest in the products or services offered.

By voluntarily providing their email addresses, these individuals show they are open to further engagement and potentially more willing to convert into customers. These email lists are not simply static databases but dynamic channels of direct communication with your audience.

They provide opportunities for personalized marketing, allowing businesses to send tailored promotions, newsletters, and updates, keeping subscribers informed and engaged.

The potential reach of email is enormous, evidenced by its extensive global usage. According to a report by Statista, as of 2023, over 4.3 billion people worldwide use email. This figure is expected to ascend to approximately 4.5 billion by 2025. These staggering numbers underscore the tremendous opportunity for businesses to tap into a vast and ever-growing pool of potential customers simply by building an effective email list.

It’s essential to recognize that building an email list is not just about amassing a large number of email addresses. It’s about establishing a network of interested and engaged individuals who have willingly given you permission to enter their inboxes. They’ve expressed a desire to hear from you and learn more about your business.

So, building an email list is not just a crucial marketing strategy but also a cornerstone of customer engagement and retention, reinforcing the vital role it plays in the overall success of your business.

How Can a Mailing List Support Your Business?

Building an effective email list can do more than just connect your business with potential and existing customers; it can serve as a vital instrument in enhancing your overall business performance.

Let’s delve deeper into understanding the unique advantages of a well-curated mailing list for your business.

Direct Communication with Potential and Existing Customers: One of the most prominent benefits of having an email list is communicating directly with your audience. Unlike social media platforms, where algorithms dictate the reach of your posts, emails land directly in your audience’s inbox. This eliminates middlemen and ensures your messages are delivered right to the doorstep of your prospects and customers.

Highly Personalized Marketing Campaigns: A business email list empowers you to create hyper-personalized campaigns. You can segment your list based on demographics, purchasing behavior, or engagement levels and then tailor your content to meet the unique needs of each segment. This level of personalization can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your campaigns, leading to increased conversions.

Low-cost, High-ROI Marketing Strategy: Email marketing is incredibly cost-effective compared to traditional marketing methods. There are no printing costs, no postage fees, and no advertising charges. Yet, it yields impressive returns. According to Campaign Monitor, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $44. This high ROI makes it an indispensable strategy for businesses, especially small ones with limited marketing budgets.

Facilitates Customer Retention and Loyalty: Your email list can be a valuable tool for nurturing customer relationships. Regular and meaningful communication helps keep your brand top of mind, fosters trust, and builds customer loyalty. You can use your email list to increase customer retention by providing exclusive discounts, offering valuable content, and asking for feedback.

Builds Brand Awareness and Increases Online Visibility: Every email you send exposes recipients to your brand, reinforcing your identity, values, and offerings. This constant exposure helps build brand awareness and trust. It can make your subscribers more likely to turn to your business when they need your products or services. Moreover, by encouraging subscribers to share your content on social media, you can significantly increase your online visibility and reach an even larger audience.

In essence, a robust mailing list is not just a strategy for your business but a multidimensional asset that can support your business in myriad ways, driving growth and success.

Pros and Cons of a Mailing List

Pros Cons
Direct reach to your target audience Risk of emails landing in spam
Cost-effective marketing strategy High traffic might incur increased costs
Fosters strong customer relationships Inconsistency might lead to unsubscribes
Potential to create a launch team

Pros explained

Reach Your Target Audience Easily: Building an email list lets you send promotions, updates, newsletters, and more directly to interested customers. This increases the likelihood of conversion and boosts customer engagement.

Easy Marketing Strategy: The ease of creating and sending emails, as compared to traditional marketing techniques, makes it a straightforward and cost-effective marketing tool.

A Good Way to Communicate with Your Subscribers: Regular email communication enables you to foster a close relationship with your subscribers, encouraging brand loyalty.

Create a Launch Team: A mailing list allows you to create a launch team – customers who get early access to your new products and promote them on social media platforms.

Cons explained

Your Emails Might End Up in Spam Inboxes: If your emails are flagged as spam, your messages won’t reach your subscribers.

High Costs: As your mailing list grows, you may need to upgrade to a more expensive email list service provider plan to manage high traffic.

Inconsistency in Emailing: Sending too many or too few emails can lead to subscriber attrition. Thus, it’s crucial to maintain a balanced emailing schedule.

How to Easily Create a Mailing List for Your Business?

Building an email list for your business is a necessity in today’s digitally-driven business landscape. The process can be surprisingly simple and can be accomplished through the following steps:

1. Add an Opt-in Pop-up Form on Your Website:

An opt-in form is your first point of contact with potential subscribers. These forms can take several shapes, but a pop-up form that appears while a visitor is browsing your website is often the most effective. It’s crucial to make this form appealing and easy to fill out.

Use captivating images, enticing headlines, and a simple form that requires minimal information (typically just a name and email address). The goal here is to catch the visitor’s interest and make the subscription process as seamless as possible.

2. Have a Strong Call to Action (CTA):

A compelling CTA can significantly increase your email sign-ups. It should clearly communicate what the potential subscriber stands to gain by joining your email list. For example, a CTA such as "Sign up for exclusive discounts and insider news!" highlights the benefits and makes the offer more appealing.

Always remember your CTA should motivate the visitor to act immediately.

3. Utilize Social Media Platforms:

With billions of active users, social media platforms offer an untapped pool of potential subscribers for your email list. You can include a sign-up button on your social media profiles or run dedicated campaigns to encourage followers to subscribe to your mailing list.

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram even allow you to run lead-generation ads specifically designed to collect email addresses.

4. Create Landing Pages:

Landing pages are dedicated pages on your website that provide detailed information about a specific product, service, or offer. They’re designed to guide visitors towards a single action - in this case, subscribing to your email list.

You can rapidly increase your email subscriptions by addressing your visitors’ pain points and offering a solution (access to quality content, exclusive offers, etc.) in exchange for their email.

5. Incentivize Sign-ups:

Everyone loves a freebie! Offering an incentive to new subscribers can significantly boost sign-ups for your business email list. This could be anything from an exclusive discount, a free e-book, a webinar, or a cheat sheet.

The key is to ensure that what you’re offering provides real value to your audience and is relevant to your brand and offerings.

By following these steps, you can quickly and effectively build an email list for your business, providing a solid foundation for your email marketing efforts.

Build your email list with Simplelists

Email lists are invaluable assets for businesses of all sizes. Building an email list allows you to directly reach your audience, foster strong relationships, promote new products, and more. Despite some challenges, like potential high costs and the risk of spam, the benefits of creating an email list far outweigh the cons.

If you haven’t started building an email list for your business yet, now is the time to start. Try Simplelists for free today, and let us help you start building your business email list today. Your business will thank you!

Get your FREE 1-month trial

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What Is a Group Email

Posted on Oct 21, 2023

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In today’s digital age, email has become an essential tool for communication. It is used by individuals and businesses alike to connect with customers, colleagues, friends, and family. Group email is a communication tool that allows businesses to communicate with a group of people simultaneously. This article will explore what a group email is, what it is used for, and how it can be managed using a group email service.

Group Email in a Nutshell

A group email is an email address that multiple people can use to communicate. Whenever an email is sent to the group email address, everyone in the group receives the email. A group email provider is a service that simplifies and makes it possible to manage the list of people in a group and handles receiving and forwarding emails sent to the list.

What is Group Email Used For?

A group email can fit into any email marketing strategy and be used for various purposes. Some examples include:

  • Collecting B2C or B2B leads and sign-ups
  • Easily interacting with customers
  • Improving customer service and newsletters
  • Interacting with employees and specific business departments (e.g., HR, marketing, IT, or support) to regularly send announcements, meeting information, or internal newsletters

Email List for Marketing: How to Use It and Why It’s Important

Group emails are essential in email marketing. They provide several benefits to businesses, such as directly interacting with an already engaged audience, sending personalized and targeted emails, and empowering lead nurturing strategy. Simplelists is a group email service that simplifies group email management, and it offers several features that can help businesses to enhance their email marketing strategy.

Directly interact with an already engaged audience

Email lists and groups help businesses interact directly with their customers, privately and personally, building trust and creating long-term relationships. Businesses usually reach out to people who have already signed up to their email lists, which means they’re talking with an audience that’s already interested in their products and more willing to open their emails. This increases the click-through and conversion rates.

Send personalized and targeted emails

Group emails can help businesses share targeted content, such as blog posts, product launches, offers, or downloadable resources, based on their target’s needs. With a powerful email list tool, they can also segment their list based on their user’s interests or buyer’s journey stages, enhancing conversion rates.

Empower your lead nurturing strategy

With Simplelists, businesses can build stronger relationships with their customers by implementing lead-nurturing tactics. Simplelists features can simplify the lead nurturing process, such as sending personalized emails, scheduling automatic follow-up emails, and setting up trigger emails.

Managing Your Group Email Strategy with Simplelists

Simplelists provides a range of management features, giving businesses an easy way to manage their group email lists and marketing strategies. Some of the key features of Simplelists include:

Upload Your Group Email List

Simplelists make it easy for you to upload your business’s email lists quickly and efficiently. This can be done by uploading a CSV (Comma Separated Variable) file or transferring from a previous list.

Set Permissions

Managing group emails can be complicated when it comes to setting permissions. Simplelists simplifies the process by providing various options for managing mailing list permissions. Giving the ability to set administrators, hold messages for approval, allow specific members to post, and set a maximum message size.

Personalize and Customize Your Emails

Personalizing and customizing emails are essential for businesses to connect with their audience. With Simplelists group email service you can customize listserve messages with recipients’ names, subject prefixes, HTML email footers, customized HTML emails, and more.

Manage Replies and Moderate Messages

Managing replies and moderating messages is easy with Simplelists. Setting community guidelines, holding messages for approval, and restricting access to individuals.

Control List Viewing

Simplelists offers control list viewing, allowing you to restrict who can see the email list and its members. You can choose to make the list public or private, allowing only authorized personnel to view and access the information. As an extra layer of security for your email list, it ensures that your sensitive information is protected. It’s also a great way to manage access if your organization has different departments or teams.

Get Daily Digest Summaries

Your email list members can receive all list messages in digest format. These digests are one message containing a summary of all the messages that were sent to the group the previous day. Making it easy for members to stay up-to-date without having to continually sift through their inbox.

Synchronize Your Simplelists Account with Your Website

Simplelists also offers an integration feature that allows you to synchronize your Simplelists account with your website. This means that when someone signs up for your mailing list on your website, their information is automatically added to your Simplelists account. You can also use this feature to automatically remove people from your mailing list if they unsubscribe from your website.

Conclusion

Group emails and mailing lists are essential tools for any business or organization that wants to communicate effectively with its audience. A group email is a simple concept that involves a group of people sharing an email address, and a group email service simplifies managing the list of people in the group and forwarding emails to the group.

Group emails can be used for various purposes, from collecting B2C or B2B leads and sign-ups to improving customer service and internal communication. They are also essential to any email marketing strategy, allowing businesses to interact directly with an already engaged audience and send personalized and targeted emails.

Simplelists is a powerful and easy-to-use group email service that offers a range of management features, including setting up your account, uploading your group email list, personalizing your emails, managing replies and moderating messages, controlling list viewing, getting daily digest summaries, synchronizing your Simplelists account with your website.

By using Simplelists, you can simplify your group email management and ensure that your emails are always targeted, personalized, and effective. So if you’re looking for a group email service to help you take your communication and marketing strategies to the next level, look no further than Simplelists.

Try us out for free and find out if Simplelists is the right group email service for you.

Get your FREE 1-month trial

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Why Use an Email Discussion List?

Posted on Sep 15, 2023

A man viewing emails on a laptop

Email marketing is nothing new. It has been around since the widespread adoption of digital communications. That’s almost three decades, give or take a few years. Yet even today, in 2023 leveraging a strong discussion list as part of your email marketing is still one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach and influence new and existing audiences.

Members who sign-up will reap the benefits of being engaged with and participating in a broad community, having a voice to share ideas and reach and influence subscribers in a way that resonates with them.

And that’s just the start.

What is an email discussion list?

An email discussion list is cultivated from a group of people with similar interests who wish to hear about and share conversations. It could be a newsletter, information about a product or service, events happening in your local area, and more.

A company email list is merely a collection of email addresses gathered from people of all walks of life, each of which has signed up to receive emails from you, usually through an online opt-in form. There’s no collaboration or discussion.

Email discussion lists often have moderators or editors review all incoming messages and decide which can be sent to subscribers and which can’t. They also tend to have guidelines, for instance, asking everyone in the group to be respectful of others and only post relevant content. Permission to share content has to be granted and clear email list management, including organization lists stipulations are followed.

The whole process is operated through an automated server which receives the email of one recipient before forwarding it on to subscribers. As subscribers respond, a conversation unfolds. And there you have it, an email discussion.

Common uses for a discussion list

As you’ve probably guessed, discussion lists are great for email marketing, for a few different reasons. From personal targeting by segmenting your audience into specific lists and sales and lead generation to generating and nurturing new and existing leads to engaging existing customers to make them feel valued and running an email campaign in tandem with special offers or trends, discussion lists will get the right people engaged - at the right time.

Just have a look below at all the ways you can use a discussion list to engage and start conversations with prospects and customers.

Products and promotions

Using a mailing list to get the word out about any products and promotions is a fine idea. But who’s to say that a standard mailing list has the right contacts? A discussion list, especially one that has been segmented, has a much better chance of reaching customers more likely to put their hands in their pockets.

Discussion lists are much more effective to inform prospects and customers of any upcoming products and promotions. Information and ideas can be easily shared between every member of the list with ease. Educating a broad range of members about a new product or service is also simple and easy, with discussions inevitably following.

Company news and updates

If you want to share company news and updates with people who’ll want to hear about it, a discussion list can be ideal. Sending newsletters with company news, such as an announcement of a lucrative partnership, or even informing readers of a new member of the leadership team, can be easily achieved.

You can also take the opportunity to inform or affirm your mission and values to your subscribers or get the word out about an upcoming contest or giveaway.

Collaborate with departments

Another vital use of the humble discussion email list is collaboration with other departments. Although it’s not the operational aim, sometimes - in large businesses, especially - interdepartmental communication can be a bit lacking. It’s almost to be expected in a company with 500, 1000, and 25,000 employees globally.

A great way to collaborate with other departments is through a hub with a central flow of information - like discussion lists. Here you can share best practices and insights, highlight a project or initiative you’re working on, and more.

Upcoming meetings and events

Want to make sure that everyone’s up to speed and engaged with company happenings? You can use a discussion list. Highlight a company event or conference, promote events or social media campaigns, and even deliver meeting minutes. It couldn’t be easier.

Open forums

The last common use for discussion lists is that they promote an open forum where colleagues can share their opinions on any new products and services and subscribers can share ideas, opinions, and experiences. This alone can help you to make better decisions in the future.

Benefits of using an email discussion list

Choose Simplelists to build your discussion list and you’ll find that it is not only a great way to collaborate and communicate with teams, small and large, local and wide, but there are several other key benefits that you can’t afford to miss. These are:

Collaboration and communication

Simplelists make it easy for remote teams to connect with colleagues easily and share ideas and information. This enhanced communication improves workflows, customer service, and brand reputation, ultimately leading to better client retention.

Increased engagement and participation

When you choose to leverage Simplelists’ discussion lists, you’ll see an increase in community engagement and participation by giving members access to a resource that’s easy to use, accessible, and engaging.

Build a strong community

With Simplelists, it’s straightforward and easy to build a strong community. Administrator or owner values can be embodied by all members, creating an interesting and engaging place for discourse. Trust can be boosted and relationships strengthened.

Targeted communication

Use Simplelists and you’ll be able to segment and distribute your discussion list so that it reaches those members who it’ll interest the most. Segment your campaigns by behavior or audience, focusing on the correct messaging and you’ll stand a good chance of maximizing influence.

Cost-effective

Reach a broad audience for a low cost. Optimize your ROI and track and measure performance. Use data to evaluate campaign success and make improvements in the future.

How to Create an Email Discussion List

Simplelists makes it easy to create email discussion lists. You don’t need to integrate any complicated email list software or undertake training, it’s easy!

Simply send an email to your list address and we’ll automatically forward it directly to the group. You can add people directly to your mailing list or they can sign-up online. Transfer from another list without member confirmation. Simplelists even provide a full hosting service and management, so you don’t need to worry about the technical details.

Our email management service has been designed to promote simplicity and ease of use. Creating email management groups and discussion lists has never been easier.

The first thing users need to do is to sign-up and choose the plan best suited to their needs. Once you’ve set up an account, you can begin creating discussion lists.

Creating an email discussion group

Creating an email discussion list is easy. Go to the “manage lists” menu, click the “Add” button, then select the discussion list.

Screenshot of creating a discussion list

Managing email list subscriptions

Once the list is created, Simplelists allows users to add members by either uploading a CSV file or adding them individually.

Screenshot of adding a contact

Posting messages and replies

To send an email to their list, members simply write an email and send it to the email address that has been specifically created for that list. Simplelists will then send it to all members of that list. All replies will be sent to that same list-specific email address.

Setting up email list rules and guidelines

List owners are able to set posting restrictions, including what members can and cannot view, and assign administrators and moderators to ensure that guidelines are followed.

Screenshot of changing list settings

What can an Email Discussion List Platform Like Simplelists Do for Your Business?

Features and Benefits of Simplelists

Below are a handful of the key features and benefits of Simplelists’ email list software.

  • Easy set-up - you don’t need to be a tech wizard or someone with years of experience building business email lists, anyone can start using Simplelists product range today.
  • Import contacts easily - add subscribers from CSV files, previous lists or manually with ease.
  • Website integration - it’s quick and easy to integrate the sign-up form with your existing website. Learn more at our blog about adding a subscription form to your website.
  • Auto bounce handling - manage spam reporting settings. Find out more by reading our blog about spam folders.
  • Set permissions - restrict posting to specific members only. Enable an approval process for each message. Learn more on our blog about posting restrictions.
  • Make it personal - subscribers can choose how to interact with the list by opting for plain text or HTML emails. Get a daily digest summary or individual posts. The choice is yours.

For a little more in-depth information, take a look at this short 3 minute video.

Overview of pricing plans

Below is an overview of our pricing plans, comparing the cost of the “single email discussion list” and “multiple email discussion lists.”

Pay as You Go price plan

The Pay As You Go price plan means you just pay for the data that you use. The more list members you have, the larger your list emails, and the more recipients all increase the data that’s used. There is a maximum data purchase requirement.

The Unlimited price plan

The Unlimited price plan means you just pay for the total number of unique members in your account. The number and size of emails (and the number of lists for a Multiple List account) are all unlimited.

Get started with your discussion list today

As you can see, the benefits of using Simplelists to optimize a discussion list are clear. From enhanced collaboration and communication, not only internally but with your customers to build a strong community of like-minded people all of which share valuable, insightful, and targeted information, and reaching and influencing a broad audience for a relatively affordable cost, an email discussion list can really help your business to prosper.

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What is a Listserv?

Posted on Jan 29, 2023

An image showing a person trying to work out what a listserv is

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.

Curious? Sign up for free.

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Managing your email list with Simplelists

Posted on Apr 25, 2021

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.

Uses for Simplelists

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.

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Email archive search

Posted on Mar 30, 2020

Simplelists offers the function to search your email archives. This can be useful for people who join your list, helping them to familiarise themselves with the list topic. It is also very useful to have a back up of all of your communications, in case you need to refer to something or check a point of reference. We have written in a previous post about how to set up your archive and personalise it.

Search email archive

How to find the message you are looking for

It would not be entirely unlikely for a busy email list to accumulate hundreds or thousands of emails over a period of years. When you add a new member to a list, they can be given the option to read emails that were sent prior to the date they joined, and/or read emails about a specific topic. For the latter, the keyword search function can be used. Alternatively, it is possible to browse all messages, sorted by date or by thread.

How to access the archive

Log in to your Simplelists account. From the Members home page, under 'What would you like to do?’, select 'View list archives’. At this stage, you may be required to enter a password, if one has been set up by the list manager. If you do not know the password, you can request an access code at this point by entering your email address.

When in the email archive, emails are ordered by month and year. In the search box at the top, you can enter a keyword and any relevant emails will be shown. It is also possible to view list statistics on this page, as well as read more detailed information about the list.

Top tips

These search tips will help you to find what you are looking for:

Search by specific month

This option is useful if you want to browse to a specific month and then search within it.

Wildcard '?’

If you type a '?’, it will be replaced with any single character. This can help when you are not sure how to spell a word. So, if you were perhaps looking for an email related to the 'Worthbury Derby’ but you couldn’t remember whether 'Worthbury’ was spelt with an 'i’ or an 'o’, you can type 'W?rthbury’ and the generated results will include both spellings.

Wildcard '*’

If you type a *, it will be replaced with any number of characters. So, for the Worthbury Derby, if you weren’t sure at all how to spell Worthbury, you could type 'W*ry’ and the results would show all emails starting with a 'W’ and ending in 'ry’.

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How to keep your marketing emails out of the spam folder

Posted on Sep 26, 2019

It has been estimated that just under 80% of emails sent by email marketers to people who signed up to your list reach the inbox. This is a pretty staggering number when your recipients have subscribed legitimately. This is because spam filters are becoming increasingly sensitive to make sure that non-legitimate emails do not get delivered. To avoid your email ending up in the spam folder, there are some simple things you can do.

email marketing and spam

Have a good email list

It is important that you make sure that the people you are emailing want to hear from you. We do not recommend that you buy or rent email lists that you can’t trust the source of, and it’s crucial that your list members have opted in to receiving your correspondence.

The easiest and most common way to do this is to get them to subscribe to a mailing list, either via a website or links on social media. You can assume that, if people visit your site, they are likely to be interested in the information/product you provide. You could add a sign-up box on all of your pages to allow users to join the list.

Ask your recipients to put you on their contact list

It is pretty much guaranteed that emails are delivered to the inbox if your list members have added you to their address book/contact list. In your welcome/first email you could ask them to add you to their contact list. You could also ask them to do this in the body of other emails that you send.

Mind the subject line

It is important to take care with the subject line of your email as it can affect the likelihood of your email avoiding the spam folder.  We have written another short post on how to write a good subject line – the key message is that it should not be too much longer than 35 to 50 characters. The longer the subject line, the more likely it is that the email will go to the spam folder.

Make it easy to unsubscribe

While this might sound counter-intuitive, making the unsubscribe link visible on your emails can actually help overall deliverability to your list. It is preferable that your recipients choose to unsubscribe themselves, rather than marking your email as spam.

Email providers such as Gmail, Hotmail and others keep track of spam complaints and may penalise you, affecting how many of your other emails are delivered. If you make it easy for your list members to unsubscribe, the risk of the email service provider blocking all the emails you send is minimised.

Don’t forget that it is important to understand that there are laws governing the sending of emails to a list – you can read more about email spam and the law in one of our earlier posts.

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GDPR and updated terms and conditions

Posted on Jun 10, 2018

You are no doubt aware that the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25 May 2018. Your inbox was probably full of messages from the various organisations and groups that hold your contact details, checking whether you still wish to receive messages from them and/or updating you about their privacy policy. Our members received an email explaining how Simplelists is complying with the regulation and we have shared that information here on our blog as well.

Simplelists GDPR

What is GDPR for?

The regulation aims primarily to give control to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU.

Who is affected?

GDPR affects Simplelists customers either based in the EU and/or who have list members in the EU.

What has Simplelists done to comply with the legislation?

In order to comply with the legislation, and to also to make it easier for our customers to comply with it, we have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. The new documents are available on our website in the footer of every page. As a general rule, the updates strengthen your rights, but if you do have any questions about the changes then please let us know. You can find our contact details here.

What do Simplelists customers need to do to comply with the legislation?

We have also added a GDPR Statement to our website, which will provide more information as to our compliance and how we can help you to comply. This statement is also available from the footer of every page on our website.

Simplelists provides email list hosting services to its customers, and as such is responsible for the secure and compliant processing of personal data related to our customers, as well as the protection of our customers’ information (which may include personal data) whilst it is being processed by one of our systems.

We believe that the new documents should assist those customers that do need to comply, but if you have any specific requirements or general questions, then please get in touch.

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How to search your email archives

Posted on Apr 4, 2018

Simplelists keeps a record of all of the emails that have been sent to your list. This archive can be useful for new list members who might need to quickly get to grips with topics that have already been covered in a private group discussion. It is also a great tool for keeping a back up of all of your communications. If you haven’t already, you can learn how to set up, view and personalise the archive in a recent post on our blog. Below, we explain how to search your email archive, allowing you to find old emails using a keyword search.

Archive search

Finding the right message in a busy list

Busy lists that have existed for a long time can accumulate thousands of emails over many years. When new members join a list, they can be granted permission to read emails that were sent before they joined, and access old emails about a specific subject. To do this, the Simplelists email archive has a keyword search function that allows you to look for old emails by keyword. You can also browse all messages by date or by thread.

Accessing the archive

You can find the archive search function from the Members Home page once you have logged in to your Simplelists account. Under 'What would you like to do?’, click on 'View list archives’. If your list manager has set up a password for accessing the archive, you will need to enter this. Otherwise, you can request an access code by entering your email address.

Once in the mail archive, messages are grouped by month and year, with the search box at the top. Type in your keyword and the relevant emails will be displayed. On this page, you can also view list statistics and read more information about your list.

Search tips

We all know how to use a search box but these tips might come in useful if you’re not entirely sure of the best keyword to search for:

Wildcard ‘?’ - Type the ? symbol and it will be replaced with any single character. This is handy when you’re not sure how a word should be spelt. For example, you might be looking for an old email titled ‘Worthington Event’ but you had forgotten if ‘Worthington’ was spelled with an ‘o’ or a ‘i’ you can type ‘W?rthington’ and the results will show emails with both spellings.

Wildcard ‘*’ - Type the * symbol and it will be replaced with any number of characters. Using the previous example, if you weren’t at all sure how to spell ‘Worthington’ you could type ‘W*ton’. The search results will show all emails that start with a ‘w’ and end with the letters ‘ton’, including ‘Worthington’.

You can also search by keyword for specific months. Browse to the month of the email that you are looking for and then search while in that month. The search will geneate results only for that month.

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A reminder of our features

Posted on Mar 6, 2018

Simplelists is designed to be quick, easy and simple to use. It also has a selection of powerful features for users who want more from their email management software. People who sign up to Simplelists do so for many reasons. They may want a way to manage group email discussions, use email for marketing purposes, or send regular updates and other information to list members. We are often asked what Simplelists can do, so this short post is a reminder of our features.

Simplelists features

 Manage members

  • Add members to your list You can add members to your list in bulk from a spreadsheet or .csv file. You can also easily download your list members’ email addresses to a spreadsheet.
  • Set posting permissions You can select who can send emails to your list. This can be: all members, selected members or just yourself.
  • Manage replies You can decide whether replies are sent to the whole list or just to the person who sent the original email.
Set restrictions
  • Moderate messages You can choose to hold messages for approval before they are sent to your list
  • Restrict email size You can limit the size of emails, strip attachments from emails, and more.
  • Control list viewing You can keep members’ names and email addresses hidden or let them be seen by other members.
Customise your emails
  • Add a personalised footer You can do this to personalise your email and include information about you or your company/group.
  • Include HTML You can include HTML in your emails, enabling you to customise your emails.
  • Include members’ names You can personalise your emails by automatically adding members’ names at the start of an email.
  • Archive emails You can archive all emails - they can be accessed from a custom website at any time.
  • Daily digest summaries These can be useful for busy lists. Instead of receiving emails when they are posted, members receive one email every 24 hours.
Control subscriptions
  • Set subscribe and unsubscribe options You can choose whether new members can join your list, and whether this requires approval.
  • Add a subscription form You can add a subscribe form to your website. It is fully customisable, so you can change it to match your website perfectly.
Integrate with websites
  • Brand your landing pages On all landing pages you can replace the Simplelists heading with your own logo or branding.
  • Synchronise your account with websites An API is available, which allows you to synchronise your Simplelists account with other websites.
  • Integrate emails with your domain A multiple list account can be integrated with your domain so that users receive emails from your domain, rather than Simplelists.
Automated list management
  • Notification of bounced emails When an email to one of your members bounces, you will receive a message to let you know.
  • Automatic processing of bounced email addresses List members with emails addresses that bounce emails repeatedly are automatically removed from your list, saving you time.
  • Automatic spam management If a list member marks your email as spam, they will automatically be removed from the list. This ensures that repeated emails are not marked as spam, which keeps delivery rates high.

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