Mail List Opt In Mail Chimp

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Richy
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Mail List Opt In Mail Chimp

Post by Richy »

Hi I have accumulated 5000+ email addresses from my holiday rentals over the years. Some from renters others just enquirers. Given the need to become more independent from listing sites this is a wasted resource that i now wish to use.
I will probably use mail chimp for this but just wanted to get peoples advice on the best way to start this so i don't fall foul of any spam rules.
None of these contacts will have ever been offered an option to opt in.
Provided i include an unsubscribe link and mention that they are receiving email as they rented or enquired in the past is this acceptable?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
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GRL
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Post by GRL »

I understood that the new data protection rules state that people had to specifically sign up for a newsletter, not just be offered an opt out button after you had collected their email. I therefore emailed everyone on my mailing list briefly explaining the new rules and asked them to send a return email with the word subscribe in the subject line if they wished to keep receiving my email newsletters. I also wrote that anyone not returning the email would receive no more newsletters from me. This also meant it weeded out those people who didn't actually want to hear from me again and I now have a new, shorter list of people who have definitely signed up for my newsletters.
Last edited by GRL on Mon Feb 05, 2018 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I did exactly the same as Rosie. I had a small list of past guests, so I sent them one email giving them the option to carry on receiving a newsletter or else they wouldn't hear from me again. I obviously had lots of people who didn't subscribe but it meant everyone on my list complied with the rules and I carried on using mailchimp. Now people sign up via their opt in process.
Joanna
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Post by Joanna »

We had a similar situation but with less names. When we signed up with Mailchimp I realised that I had to email them all before we could even start using Mailchimp. You can set up a subscribe form in Mailchimp and email them a link to it or just send an email asking the question and then manually add the ones that say yes.

Mailchimp don't want you sending the first 'do you want to join our mailing list' mass email through their system becuse it will, inevitably, have a high level of bounce backs, etc. which will make them look like spammers.

So I sent out all the 'sign up' emails using Outlook in small batches (which took ages). The response was quite low so our initial MailChimp list was very small but at least we know that everyone on it wants to hear from us. Our list is growing slowly and we have quite a good 'open' rate which is a good sign and our last mailing generated a few bookings.

By the way - it's worth checking on the upcoming GDPR rules before you start. For example, you need to make it clear what your subscribers are signing up to - if they sign up to emails for late availability deals then you're not supposed to send them anything else, so make sure your introductory email covers everything. You also have to tell them what you will do with their data (eg whether you will pass it on to anyone else) and how they can access it, edit it or get it removed from your records.
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
linda que linda
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Post by linda que linda »

Been thinking about doing a newsletter for a while now. Thanks Rosie and Joanna for the useful startup information.
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