Online Advertising
Bought addresses are unlawful in most European markets and commercially worthless. The slow route through your own sign-ups is the only one that holds.
The wish for a large list quickly leads to two mistakes: bought addresses and silently harvested contacts. Both are unlawful and practically worthless.
Commercial email to individuals requires prior express consent. That consent must be logged, with the time, the wording shown and evidence of confirmation.
There is a narrow exception for existing customers: someone who has bought from you may be advertised similar goods of your own if, when the address was collected and in every message, the right to object was pointed out. That exception is narrow and does not cover third-party offers.
After sign-up the person receives a message with a confirmation link. Only the click makes them a recipient. Without that procedure you cannot prove in a dispute that the sign-up came from the person themselves.
Store per sign-up: timestamp, IP address, the consent wording displayed, and the confirmation timestamp. Those four entries are the whole proof.
A newsletter alone is not an incentive. The visitor's question is: what do I get?
| Incentive | Sign-up rate | Address quality |
|---|---|---|
| Discount voucher | 4 to 9 % | low, often one-time buyers |
| Checklist or template | 3 to 7 % | high, topically matched |
| Price list or calculator | 5 to 12 % | very high for services |
| Sample despatch | 2 to 5 % | very high |
| Plain newsletter sign-up | 0.2 to 0.8 % | medium |
| Prize draw | 10 to 25 % | very low |
The last row is the trap. Prize draws fill lists fast with people who wanted the prize. Those addresses do not open, do not click and drag deliverability down.
Points four and five cost nothing and are almost always forgotten.
A mid-sized firm with 2,000 site visits a month and a 3 per cent sign-up rate gains 60 addresses monthly, around 50 net of unsubscribes. After a year that is 600; after two years 1,200.
That sounds slow, and it is the reason to start today rather than when you need the list.
Only if the person expressly agreed to the newsletter. Handing over a card is making contact, not granting advertising consent.
With an order value above £2,000, 300 active addresses already pay. In retail the threshold is nearer 3,000.
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