We're so happy that you're eager to build your email list with Flodesk. 🙌🏻
And we get it—you want to gain as many subscribers as you can. And some of them may be already on your radar, aka your personal contact list.
But as Flodesk is an email marketing platform, only subscribers who've already provided express, first-party, opt-in consent to receive marketing emails from your brand can be imported to your Flodesk audience.
What does it mean?
It means that you can't email people from Flodesk directly asking if they want to join your newsletter.
This wouldn't keep you in compliance with privacy regulations and anti-spam laws that your business is required to follow when sending marketing emails.
The good news is that you can still invite any interested personal contacts to officially opt-in to your brand, so you can bring them to Flodesk by following these guidelines:
1. Create a full-page form in your Flodesk account and link it to a new segment.
Note: Be sure the form very clearly states that by subscribing, they will receive ongoing email communication from your business.
Learn more about this here: GDPR compliance.
Note: If you have a website, you can create a dedicated sign-up page on your own domain and embed a Flodesk inline form to capture your subscribers' details.
You can learn more about forms in our Help Center here: How do I create an opt-in form?
2. Using an alternate contact option (your own email, your CRM platform, your Social Media presence, etc.), send them the link to your full-page form or your sign-up page so they can quickly click and opt-in.
Note: This email can not be sent from your Flodesk account. Attempting to send out this type of email from Flodesk can result in service interruptions.
3. Your contacts who confirm their opt-in will be added to your Flodesk audience. This also creates an opt-in record to protect your business in the event of spam complaints.
Note: We also recommend learning more about your regional anti-spam and privacy laws to make sure you're compliant. These laws vary between countries and regions, so it's best to work with a legal advisor familiar with your regional requirements.
4. Additionally, you can create and share your opt-in forms across your website and social media presence to start collecting subscribers.
Summary
As Flodesk is an email marketing platform, only subscribers who've already provided express, first-party, opt-in consent to receive marketing emails from your brand can be imported to your Flodesk audience.
This means that you can't email people from Flodesk directly asking if they want to join your newsletter.
But you can still invite any interested personal contacts to officially opt-in to your brand using alternate contact methods as detailed above.