All of us have heard about email marketing and its benefits. However, none of us has heard about safelist marketing. Safelist marketing is not a new concept. It has been working even before social media. Despite the word safe in its term. This form of marketing is not called safe by many. Many marketers have called it spam. Therefore, this particular digital marketing channel is a controversial topic.

EmailAn email (or electronic mail) is a method of exchanging communications through the internet. It is one of the most used features on the web and the number one mean... marketing is no joke. It is a very strong tool that you must take advantage of. However, a small mistake can cause a lot of damage. For instance, sending an email with a lot of typos. Your customers may not engage with such emails. This may lead to low email deliverability. In addition, it could also lead to your email address being marked as spam.

On other hand, advertising is a big-money business. More money equals more advertising. However, some companies may not have that privilege. Therefore, these companies find ways to get more web traffic. One of those ways is safelist marketing. This way is not a new one at all. This had its hype back in the 90s. However, safelist marketing has seen many new features since the time it first began.

What Is Safelist Marketing? 

Now, what is a safelist? This list has a group of email addresses that have agreed to become a member of your mailing list. You can call this a safety net. So, a group of people or companies agree to receive promotional emails sent by you. However, you do the same for them too. Back in the 90s, safelist marketing was easier. There were barely any people marketing on the internet. People kept growing their safelists. Therefore, by the 2000s, there were many safelists online.

What was the point of creating a safelist though? These safelists were safe from being marked as spam. Every member of the mailing list has agreed to be a part of the list. Therefore, safelist platforms had no spam and report features. So, to put this in brief. Safelist marketing was about exchanging promotional emails with one another. However, you cannot be marked as spam or reported. Although, one question rises “who was reading all these marketing emails.”

Sending and receiving advertisements seems pointless if there are no conversions. For instance, you send your email ad to a hundred others on your safe list. You receive a hundred ads from them too. However,  You immediately delete them and clear your inbox. Why? It is because you are not interested in being a customer. Therefore, this is the same with any company. How is your safelist achieving any purpose?

This is what led to the decrease in the popularity of safelists. This form of marketing is not completely over. Some people still practice it. Soon enough, credit safelists began too. These are similar to the typical safelists but work on credit scores. Here, members need to engage with the other emails to earn credits. Using the credits earned, you can send your own emails.

The Best Safelist Marketing Strategies 

There is no specific strategy for safelist marketing. However, you can use some tactics to drive more traffic. Here are some of them: 

• Separate email addresses: Some people often give the same email id for both listing and contact email. While one is for communication with safelist members, the other is for the exchange of promotional emails. Using the same id for both can leave you in a dump of emails. Therefore, have two separate email addresses. 

• Compelling splash page: People from your safelist only visit your website to earn credits. However, what if you could grab their attention? Splash pages are designed in a way to force the user to move forward. Therefore try doing that.

• Build the funnel: Safelists are not meant for selling. You cannot write a big email explaining your history and your product. However, you can use a soft pitch. For instance, how about giving away a few free products? In exchange, you can get referrals, and ask for email sign-ups. This looks simple to a customer but is actually good data. Therefore, try using a safelist as a part of the funnel.

• Perfect ad copy: Writing an excellent ad copy is important. However, we often tend to make simple mistakes. Always ensure that your email looks good both on the phone and computer. Try using HTML builders to make your email design look better. Finally, ensure that your website link or URL on the email is correct.

• LinkA link is a connection that let you jump from a webpage to another. It can be attached to pieces of text, images or HTML elements and it's actually a... tracker: These tools help you count how many people visited your site. In addition, these trackers also help identify the time and location of these visitors. Therefore, use the URL you get from the link tracker instead of your landing page’s URL.

Benefits of Safelist Marketing 

Safelist marketing is definitely not a channel everyone uses. It has its own set of problems too. However, if used right, it can have some benefits too. Here are some advantages of safelist marketing:

• Inexpensive: This form of marketing has always been used by people who don’t have a lot of money to pay. In addition, it is quite simple too. Few people open your emails so that you open theirs. It’s a simple give and take. Therefore, you will find plenty of free safelists out there. 

• No spam risk: a safelist won’t be called “safe” if it wasn’t. This is the whole point of it, right? Everyone on that list has willingly agreed to receive emails. So, there is no risk of spam at all.

• Could prove effective: It is not necessary that everyone on that mailing list may not be interested in what you send. For instance, if your email contains promo codes for products which any member may like. You might have a customer! Therefore, it is all about relevant and reaching the right person. People do read emails to gain credit points. However, they may end up liking something too. This may lead to a website click and probably a purchase too!

• Website traffic: Well, you cannot send emails to your safelist if you don’t have enough credits to do so. You earn these credits by opening other emails. Therefore, every member of the safelist may have to open a certain amount of emails and engage to earn some credits. So, out of all the emails you have sent, you can expect at least some amount of traffic. Therefore, safelist marketing can have little website traffic.

Tips and Best Practices

It may not be easy to crack safelist marketing. However, you can try these tips and practices to improve your strategy:

• Subject: When we talk about emails, the subject line is the first thing that comes to mind. Have an interesting subject line. Use something that may leave all the members curious. Make it exciting by using the offers as incentives. You may also provide solutions to problems.

• Send trustable content: don’t make your message sound like any other message. Therefore, Try to personalise it. It should look like your website is worth checking out. People should be able to connect with you.

• Track: Use trackers to understand where you are getting clicks from. You should also know if you are not getting clicks from some users. This helps you get an overall idea. Therefore, you may not end up wasting your credits on the wrong people.

• Don’t pitch: let’s be honest! No one likes to constantly receive emails that are trying to sell something. However, people do like to know about the value your business can add to their life. Therefore, talk more about the solutions your business can provide.

• Mail everyone if possible: Try sending an email to the entire list if possible. You don’t know the activity status of every member. What if you have credit points available only for 50 email addresses? You may realise that maybe the daily mailers are actually those you weren’t able to mail. Therefore, try mailing everyone on that list.

In Conclusion

All in all, safelist marketing isn’t your traditional style of marketing. It is way different. It works on the principle of give and take. However, it depends on how you use it as well. Many marketers have found this form of marketing a waste of time. On the other hand, some have really made it work. Therefore, safelist marketing requires a lot of insight. Check out safelist marketing examples to take inspiration.

However, this form of marketing does not work for everyone. The members on a safelist constitute a specific audience. Therefore, one must work according to it. Don’t try to aggressively sell using these mailing lists because you will get no sales. Try working around it using soft pitches and offers.

Have you ever been a part of a safelist? Do you have any tips that have worked for you? Let us know in the comments section below.