Customer Lists

Why This Matters

Customer lists (Marketing lists or Email Marketing lists) are currently one of the most essential pieces of online businesses. This is because your existing customers typically have the highest conversion rate, as well as the best word-of-mouth marketing and referral business. Many businesses have a box of business cards with addresses, emails and mailing addresses on them, while some businesses have lists and are ready to move to Customer Relationship Management Software.

Resources

Use these as a starting point to build out your customer list (or add to your list).

Consider the questions and tips provided below:

1. Do you have a customer list/database? (emails from customers, boxes of business cards)
2. Simple tracking: Use Google Sheets (you will need a Gmail address) or Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet with the following fields:
   1. Name
   2. Contact
   3. Email
   4. Company
   5. Phone Number
   6. Address
   7. Source Info (where did you get their contact info from)
3. Enter in your business cards either manually or by using a tool like the following:
   • ABBYY Business Card Reader – Scan and manage all your business cards and contacts in a flash
   • CamCard – Scan, manage, sync and exchange business cards
   • ScanBizCards (uploads info direct to your CRM)
4. Export the list from your Accounting or Invoicing Program (Quickbooks, Sage, Xero, PayPal, Invoicely etc)

What happens if I don’t have customer emails?

If you don’t have your customer’s emails you could offer free content (tutorials, special offers) through your social media or website, and ask customers to sign up with their email address to receive it.

Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List – Simple Ways to Grow Your Email List.

The Complete Guide to Email Marketing – Learn email marketing best practices from creating a strategy to building a list to tracking results.

The Best Business Card Scanning Apps – Digitize your client’s contact information in a cinch.

Important! Before sending a marketing campaign using email be sure to read up on Anti-Spam Laws and Legislations such as Canada Anti-Spam Legislation: CASL.

Familiarize yourself with the Anti-Spam resources we’ve compiled.

Recommendations

Best Email Marketing Services – An article on how choosing the right email marketing service can have a significant impact on the success of your marketing campaign. Includes some great questions to ask so read to the end of the article.

Email Marketing Software Providers

Mailchimp – Highly popular mail distribution system. Create audiences, view insights, automation and eduction though the process.

Send in Blue – Sales and Marketing platform. Send in blue offers emails, SMS, forms and pages as well as an integrated Customer Relationship Management solution.

Constant Contact – Email distribution system. Create branded emails, automation and marketing. They also offer web and e-commerce services.

Drip – Marketing automation through email, SMS and forms. Easily integrates with many popular web platforms.

Get Response – Similar to Constant Contact; a email marketing distribution platform with options for web pages and click funnels.

HubSpot – More than email marketing but has this feature as well – marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service.

ConvertKit – ConvertKit is a robust email marketing platform for professional bloggers, authors, and marketers. It is easy to use and powerful.