the Portal

Today’s Optimize Your Small Business post is about compiling a quality email list you can build a business around. Last week, we addressed basic email applications.

All the apps we discussed (Google Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird) have the capacity to build a fairly robust master mailing list as well as sub-lists for specific targeted audiences. If you anticipate doing a lot of email messaging campaigns, a database program like Microsoft Access might work well for you. A popular and easy to use alternative is Batchbook by BatchBlue Software. Batchbook comes with a one-month free trial, followed by pricing plans from $120 a year up. You can also build a list in a plain old spreadsheet (Excel or Google) and import that list into your email program of choice. Be sure to leave a comment here, if you have other programs or systems to recommend.

The point of the exercise is to think beyond customers, beyond sales. Ideally a good number of people you add to your list are or will be customers. You’ll assign them an appropriate category, below. But part of what social media has taught us is that we’re all connected in one way or another — and connecting in new ways all the time. Any good business is built on relationships. But we also build relationships to enhance our own and others’ quality of life. We’re starting from a “pay it forward” viewpoint — NOT what each of the people on your list can do for you.

Two cautions. This will take awhile, but the time you spend will pay rich dividends. Second, look for opportunities along the way to drop a line to some of the people you haven’t heard from in awhile. This helps you validate the entries, and nurtures the friendship. A simple note will do, no need to put together an elaborate business message.Now let’s build that list.

• Start with everyone you presently know how to reach by email. Whatever program you’re using, take the time now to assign each name a category. Categories might include family, an organization you belong to, alumni association, client, or prospect. You can fine tune the categories later; but the more time you give this step, the more useful your list will be.
• Sort the list, alphabetically by surname, so when you begin entering biz cards, next, you’ll know if you already have that person on your list.
• Add your business cards — for all the people you can still remember who they are or think they might remember you.  Enter ALL the data you want to keep off these cards while you’re at it. Then throw the cards away or stash them in a big binder, in plastic sheets made just for this purpose. Some clever people have scanners to do this for them, like Dymo’s CardScan. If not, gut it out, type them in. The point here is to build a list you can USE in your business — and flipping through dozens of cards or pages of cards is not an efficient system.
• If you’re a member of any organizations (business, religious, civic) you probably were given a directory — or have access to an online one. Take the time to review those directories, name by name. Anyone you can picture in your mind, whom you can imagine being part of a general body of friends and associates, add them now. You can build on those relations in numerous ways — once you’ve become aware of them. And the synergies you discover will make your and their life richer.
• Include ALL your social media contacts (LinkedIn ones particularly) for whom you have email addresses. And again, assign them a category.
• If you’ve been to any conferences, dig back through the program and any mailings, to see if there were presenters or attendees you’d like to keep up with. Add their names and whatever you remember about them into your list and then spend a few hours some weekend looking for them on Google (or their company’s web site) tracking down an email address or telephone numbers for them.

Don’t forget former employers and also competitors or potential competitors. Reestablish contact with those you may have lost touch with and resolve or move past any awkward partings. We never know who we might want to work or collaborate with somewhere down the road.

This should get you started. I’ll wager you end up with at least a few hundred names. Depending on your categories, some of those people you’ll be in touch with a lot more often than others. But you’ve identified them and, in our final installment, we’ll look at ways to use these names to build your business.

You may also want to visit these other Optimize Your Small Business articles

• Part 1, a Backup System That Works
• Part 2, Best Basic Apps
• Part 3, Rethink Your Email System