Building Your List, Ethically

October 30th, 2009 | Posted by Debra Simpson in List Building

Last week I had a lot of opportunities to experience how others build their lists. List building is an essential component to business marketing, especially online marketing. So, through a series of posts, I’m going to share some examples of inappropriate list building and how the example given should have been handled and will pay special attention to the CanSpam act when necessary.

Our first example comes from a recent rollout of a new online product from a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), or Network Marketing company. I was sent an email asking me to take a look at the product and give an evaluation of it. After testing the interface extensively, I realized that the product was not quite ready for launch. Several links were dead, not going anywhere and some of the functionality wasn’t working.

I also indicated that this was the one, and only, network marketing company I had signed on with because I thought I could market the existing product (not the new launch) one way, and I couldn’t. So, I too, had access to this new product launch. I was disappointed that the new product wasn’t up to snuff.

After delivering my assessment, this associate came back to me and asked me to email her affiliate link to my list. So what are my problems with that request?

First, why would I email another person’s link to my list? What would be in it for my business? After all, my list expects to get information from me and would view this as a product endorsement. Knowing the site didn’t work well, why would I promote that to my list?

Second, where is the thought process on behalf of the associate? After informing the associate that I was also an associate, why wasn’t the conversation dropped there? Is it a lack of business savvy? I’ve experienced it several times with other MLM professionals.

Here’s how I think it should have been handled. Once the associate was informed that I too was a fellow associate, a request to send their link to my list should have never been made. What MLM professional should understand is that I’ve worked hard growing my list and am not likely to give access to my list indiscriminately.

One other thought…you shouldn’t give your list to someone to use. When people opt-in to your list, which is the best way to build a list, they have an expectation to hear from you, not someone else. The last thing you want is to be tagged as someone who spams.

Next post, building an opt-in list, what it is and why you want to build your list that way.