The Third Stage’s philosophy on contact lists is that a list built bottom up is far more use than a list purchased. We would not argue that bought lists are without merit, and indeed they have their place in the marketing cycle. However if you have the patience to build your own list then this will have a far greater chance of generating an ongoing dialogue and orders.

At The Third Stage we have been working with a leading charity to build their ‘Friends of” contacts list for a new facility recently built and opened. Using our inbound email system for permission based email marketing, we have personalised the sign up experience for visitors to the facility. Trigger email addresses have been placed into press releases and advertising to automate sign up in a personal way.

The result – a growing database of ‘Friends’, beautifully segmented with a very low unsubscribe rate on outgoing emails and full permissions for both email and mobile contacts.