Get excellent free stuff and discounts by joining mailing lists

Saturday, 06 September, 2008

I'm probably going to sound like I'm trying to sell you something here (I'm not). All I'm trying to advise is join email mailing lists from websites you like. You could get some nice stuff in return.

If you already join lists, you'll know what I mean and at this point, you're probably thinking that I've been under a rock all these years and sound like I've just discovered the net and the genius functionality of that "Subscribe" button.

Sure, its a pretty obvious reaction that if you like a website and return often, you'll want to join its mailing list to stay in touch with its updates. But I'm becoming more aware that companies are using these mailing lists to give out decent free stuff and good offers.

So, if you don't make a habit of joining mailing lists, have a think about it and carry on reading.

I think mailing lists have a raw deal. Its easy to equate them with junk mail and some people seem to be quite precious about their email address, wanting to keep emails down to a minimum.

There's nothing wrong with that, but why restrict yourself? You don't have much to lose by signing up to a few mailing lists and if you really are precious about your current email address, just sign up for several more!

Why join mailing lists?

Anyway, websites and especially retailer sites that offer mailing lists usually want to capture contact details of their market and build up a relationship with them. They have to offer something compelling - a reason to hand over your details in the first place.

Sometimes its worth your while, sometimes not. But you can't always predict this, and sometimes, there are *offers* given out in enewsletters that are only for current subscribers. Too late then, if you haven't subscribed.

Therefore, if you're vaguely interested when browsing a website and there is a mailing list, I think you should just sign up - assuming it just takes a few seconds. Sign up then forget about it. One day, you're likely to get something in your inbox that makes you glad you did.

What you could get in return

In my personal experience, these are the specific kinds of things I've received via mailing lists (some I've redeemed, but not all):

Forbidden Planet : 30% off voucher (for today actually!)
Yo-Sushi : discount vouchers or 2 for 1 offers
Mojo Interiors Designer furniture : (Eames chair etc) 20% off
Maximuscle : £8 off, 30% off, and all kinds of offers
Moo Cards : 20% off everything
Wagamama : buy one main meal, get second free
Amazon : £5 vouchers
Muji : free goodie bags and various % off on special evenings
Blurb books : $10 off next order
Borders : 40% any full priced book
Habitat : 20% off after spending £200

One last (excellent) one - Innocent Drinks ran a scheme where you could submit your office details and if their van was in your area, they'd promise to deliver a bunch of free drinks. I can't remember whether it was mentioned in their enewsletter or on their site, but I get their emails, so something must have made me see it.

I thought it would be one of those things that would never happen, but of course, I mention it here, because it did happen! They turned up with a box of about 20 x 2 litre cartons of mangoes and passion fruit smoothies!

Anyway, I think that's quite a list above and I still feel like I've forgotten a few. Bear in mind, these are only some of the things I've been interested in, so anyone else is bound to have their own preferable websites to join.

Sign up to mailing lists with a multiple email address strategy

Still cautious?

Email address-wise, you'll probably have a work one, and probably a personal one too. If you want to keep those as they are, you can always give mailing lists a try with free email accounts, from Google Mail for instance. With Google Mail, you can actually set it up to redirect to your existing email address, so that you don't have to check another account.

If you find that receiving mailing list emails aren't for you, you can just delete the Google Mail account.

Using your own domain name

If you're comfortable with using your own domain name, then you can alternatively set up different accounts (different prefixes) just for mailing lists.

For instance, you can set up a "mailinglists@yourdomain.com" POP account and use this address for all the mailing lists you sign up to. If you're after more control, you can also set up different aliases for each mailing list you submit to and have all these forward to your main POP account. E.g. The email alias "amazon@yourdomain.com" could forward emails to "mailinglists@yourdomain.com".

Using different aliases allows you to change the forwarding settings in the future if you want, and you can also monitor whether your address was *sold* to any other service. I.e. You'll know Amazon sold your address if you suddenly started receiving emails sent to this address from a completely unrelated company.

Anyone out there get lots of good stuff from mailing lists? Feel free to log your experiences and recommendations in the comments below.

This entry posted in : Technology.

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