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Fact: Your company’s email program is only as good as your contact database.

No matter how great your emails are, they won’t work if they don’t hit their target. Eventually, your contacts change jobs or receive promotions, and their companies go out of business or merge with entirely different organizations.

The accuracy of B2B email lists is constantly eroding. Slowly but surely, you’ll be left with inaccurate and unreliable data. If you aren’t diligent about the factors that impact email deliverability, you could potentially run your email marketing program into obsolescence. What is email list building?

Email list building is the process of collecting the email address of your website users or visitors. Typically this is done by placing a form on your website that allows interested users to subscribe to your content and promotions. By building an accurate B2B email marketing list, businesses are better able to communicate with real potential customers.

Can I buy B2B email lists?

Email list providers exist in the market, but sending emails to people who didn’t opt-in for your content is problematic. Explicit agreement from the user is legally necessary to send them marketing emails. Also, purchasing email lists isn’t the most sustainable way to build a successful email marketing program

So then, how do you build a solid B2B email list? Here’s how in seven simple steps.

7 Steps to building a B2B email list

1. Cleanse your database regularly

First and foremost, prioritize database cleansing. There’s no point in growing your email list if you don’t have a management strategy to maintain the collected data. Consider the following:

Up to 25% of B2B database contacts contain critical errors, resulting in dirty email lists.

1–10–100 rule: It costs $1 to verify a record as it’s entered, $10 to scrub and cleanse it later, and $100 if nothing is done.

43% of sales and marketing teams say a lack of accurate data remains a challenge.

Establish controls to manage how data is entered into your CRM and work with an email list cleansing service or solution to regularly audit your database and keep your email lists up-to-date.

2. Highlight your subscription box

Don’t hide your subscription box in the footer of your website. You want to make it as easy as possible for visitors to subscribe to your emails.

Not only do you want your subscription box front and center, but you should also include it within all website content. The reason for this is simple: if someone’s enjoying your blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, etc., give them the opportunity to read more by subscribing to your email list.

3. Include the ‘opt-in’ option on all web forms

Whether someone is signing up for a free trial or filling out a ‘contact us’ form, give them the option to opt-in to your email list. This person is already expressing some sort of interest in your company, capitalize on this!

For example, the EmailKart website contains a clear call to action for users to opt-in when they sign up.

4. Gate your best content

Have a whitepaper or eBook that’s performing exceptionally well? Put it behind a form and ask readers to subscribe to your email list to get access to this premium content. While we don’t recommend gating all content, picking and choosing certain pieces gives readers the feeling that they’re receiving an exclusive offer.

5. Offer a discount

Speaking of exclusive offers, give your prospects and customers a discount for subscribing to your emails or offer them discounts on special occasions. Whether it’s one dollar off or a free week of your product, people appreciate a good bargain.

6. Take it offline

The internet offers an easy way to get new subscribers into your CRM, but you can still collect some of the best email addresses in person. Whether you’re meeting with a prospect for lunch, having a casual conversation on the train, or hosting a massive marketing event, always collect people’s business cards. This might seem old school, but it works.

7. Work with a data provider

While it’s great to collect email addresses organically, you should also work with a data provider. Leading data providers can analyze your existing database and build email lists matching the characteristics of your best buyers—people interested in your business’ content and communications.

Taking these seven steps to fortify the quality of your data and as a consequence, your email marketing lists will help your organization’s email programs succeed.

Visit us for more information about EmailKart products that bulk clean email lists, verify email addresses in real-time, and sync with your CRM and marketing automation tools.