Building Your Email List

Email is a quick, inexpensive, and powerful way to target and address your various markets, especially when compared to direct mail,  and other traditional marketing channels. Listed below are a couple of pointers to make sure you get off on the right track.

Building Your  Email List   ----  Be selective

If you want to build an email list of existing customers, be sure to obtain their permission first instead of adding their names without telling them.Provide a value proposition that makes them want to be on your email list. For example, offer them an additional three-month warranty on a product in exchange for receiving product updates by email. This approach gives you the opportunity to strengthen the bond between you and your customers. If you add an email address without permission, recipients can get fiesty- everyone gets too much email - they will complain and mark your messaging as spam  and possibly shut down the relationship with you altogether.

When building an email list of fresh contacts, remember bigger is not necessarily better. You want engaged customers --not just a list of dead nonresponders. Be sure to build a list of qualified names out of which a certain percentage will turn into prospects. Out of those prospects, a certain percentage should turn into conversions. When done correctly, you can enjoy higher sales results because your offers are sent to the right audience at the right times.

To qualify new contacts, many companies require individuals to confirm their initial request to get onto an email list by replying to a confirmation email. This is called "double opt-in", and it can slow your acquisition rate by 50% or more, but typically makes for a much more qualified and responsive email list.

Asking a new contact to take a single action to get onto your email list is called "single opt-in". This approach grows your list faster than double opt-in, though the list may not be as responsive and as rich with qualified prospects.

Remember, once permission is granted for your email communications, relevancy and timeliness determines whether or not a recipient views your emails as spam.

• Collect email addresses from registration cards, point-of-sale, customer service, and sweepstakes. For prospecting purposes, gather email addresses from your website, online white papers offered, from visitors to your trade show booths and from sales calls. Be careful: Just because you already have a person's email address for one reason or another doesn't necessarily mean you have permission to start sending all sorts of email campaigns to them. In all cases, give people an expectation of the value they will receive in return for handing over their email address to you."
• Post a privacy notice on your registration page at your website. People are understandably suspicious of any site they come across on the Internet so it's best to address their concerns up front. As reported by eMarketer, IMT Strategies found "93% of US internet users consider it very important that the site display a statement of how it will use personal information."
• Show prospective subscribers a sample of what they are signing up for at your website. 
• Keep your registration page simple by asking for minimal information. You can always get more information later using surveys and incentives once an individual is added to your email list.

Watch out for:

• Don't make it difficult for people to stop hearing from you by email. Make it easy for a person to leave ("opt-out") of any or all email communications. For example, people may still wish to receive your product updates but not your company news. If it's difficult to be removed from your email list, recipients can complain to their ISP or self-appointed spam police who in turn can have you blacklisted. Being blacklisted means the recipient's ISP will automatically filter out any inbound email containing your name or email address.
• Don't promote your company or services through the renting, sponsoring, or bartering of email lists without performing a background check of the list owners and asking how they obtained their email addresses. You could be guilty by association if you are perceived as doing business with a spammer. Furthermore, spam laws are currently getting tougher in this area. Monitor the latest developments in legislation by visiting www.spamlaws.com.

Pre-checked opt-in boxes: Some online subscription forms have the "check" box for receiving email communications pre-checked. While this speeds list growth, some

U.S.

courts and legislative bodies do not consider this practice as being truly an "opt-in" choice. Your list grows faster employing this practice, but the people who passively join your list in this fashion may not be as qualified as those who proactively check the box.