Email Marketing Video Tutorial #3: How to Prepare and import Mailing List

To get started in email marketing by using Constant Contact, you must first prepare your mailing list. Mailing list is also called customer database or list of email addresses. Regardless the name it is called, Constant Contact required the mailing list to be permission-based. In another words, you must obtain permission from your customers before you can send out any email message to them.

How to Prepare Mailing List
You can prepare your mailing list in 2 methods – Using Excel Spreadsheet or Extract Directly from CRM or related Database software.

1. Using Excel Spreadsheet
   The mailing list can be prepared and saved in .txt, .csv, .xls, .xlsx format using Excel spreadsheet or notepad editor. You can create fields like Name, Email Address, Address, Company Name, Tel & Country. But for this tutorial, we shall focus on 2 fields first – Name and Email Address. If you want personalization for your email, you can break the Name further into First Name and Last Name.
2. Extract Directly from CRM or related Database Software
   If you already have some form of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or other database software available, you can easily extract the data from such software. It will save you great amount of times preparing the mailing list manually.Constant Contact has made it easy to integrate its email marketing system with other CRM or database software by providing a list of import tools as below. 
   1. Microsoft Outlook
   2. Microsoft Outlook Express
   3. ACT! By Sage
   4. Salesforce
   5. Intuit QuickBooks
   6. Contact Capture Tool

You can download all the above tools free from Constant Contact.

Import Mailing List into Constant Contact
There are four options where you can import your mailing list (or database) into Constant Contact.

1. Copy and Paste Contact in CC manually
2. Add Individual email address into CC manually
3. Import Contacts from a file on your computer
4. Import Contacts from Gmail or Google Contacts

You can find out the details in the below email marketing video tutorial. It will not only show you step by step on how to import a mailing list in excel spreadsheet format but also how to  enter the contacts directly into Constant Contact.