ChatBuildDo you need an email list?
The only audience you own — and not one you should start today.
An email list is the only audience you own. Social platforms rent you reach and change the terms; search sends people when it feels like it. A list is a direct line that nobody can alter.
That is the argument for having one. It is not an argument for having one yet.
When a list is worth starting
A list earns its keep when you have something to say on a schedule and a reason for people to want it. In practice that means one of three situations:
- Repeat purchase. People buy from you more than once a year and a nudge genuinely helps them.
- A long decision. Someone researches for months before choosing, and staying present matters.
- Something genuinely useful to send. Availability, seasonal timing, a change in the rules that affects them.
If none of those describe you, a list will become a quarterly guilt and an unsubscribe rate. Be reachable instead, and put the effort into your site.
Getting permission properly
This is the part that turns a list into a liability when it is done casually.
- Consent is separate. A newsletter box on a contact form must be unticked and must not be a condition of the enquiry.
- Say what they will get and how often at the point of signing up. "Updates" is not a description.
- Keep the record — what they agreed to, in what words, and when.
- Unsubscribe in one click, honoured immediately, with no "are you sure".
- A customer is not automatically a subscriber. Buying something is consent to be served, not to be marketed to.
What to actually send
The list that works is the boring one: infrequent, specific and obviously useful.
Write as if to one person, because it is read by one person. Put the single most useful sentence first, because most people read that and nothing else. And send less often than you think — a monthly email people open beats a weekly one they filter.
The unsubscribe rate is not the metric to watch. Replies are. A list that generates conversations is working; a list with a good open rate and no replies is a habit.
Where it lives
Use a proper email tool from day one, even at fifty subscribers. Sending marketing from your own mailbox costs you deliverability, breaks the one-click unsubscribe requirement, and puts your customer list somewhere with no export.
The signup belongs on the site, not in a popup that arrives in two seconds. On a ChatBuild site the newsletter field sits in the footer and on the pages where it makes sense, with the consent wording captured properly rather than bolted on. What a site includes.
The honest starting point
If you are not sure you will send anything, do not collect addresses. An abandoned list is a data-protection obligation with no upside.
If you are sure, start with the people who already bought from you, ask them properly, and send the first one this month rather than designing a template.
Related: the consent rules here are the same ones that govern any data you collect, and what you send is usually an answer you already wrote.
Frequently asked
- Can I email customers who have bought from me?
- About their purchase, yes. Marketing to them is a separate purpose that generally needs its own consent, and even where existing-customer rules apply, the message must offer a one-click way out that you honour immediately.
- How often should I send?
- Less often than you think. A monthly email that people open beats a weekly one they filter, and the only real rule is that every send has something specific and useful in it rather than existing to maintain a cadence.
Sjors Hooijen Builds ChatBuild and writes about getting a business online without turning it into a project. Questions about this article? Email hi@chatbuild.com.