When your ESP is down, revenue-generating initiatives are rendered inoperable, impacting your bottom line. Reliability matters. Protect yourself. Look for an uptime of 99.5% or higher, ask for an SLA, and check customer references. Learn more with our 2010 guide |
|
"67% of US internet users say the motivation behind giving their email address to a company is to receive discounts and promotions."
-ExactTarget "Email X-Factor Study" (2010)
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
The Do's and Don'ts of List Building
 |
Your in-house email list plays a crucial role in the ongoing, sustainable success of your email marketing program. Obviously the more names on your list, the higher your ROI for each campaign, right?
Wrong. The only names that matter are the quality ones.
A focus on quality over quantity is the trick to building a list that generates results. What good comes from a list of 100,000 if half the people on the list don’t want to hear from you? They’re not only less likely to buy. They’re more likely to damage your sending reputation through spam complaints. And then you’ll be blocked from sending to those who do want to hear—and buy—from you!
The value of your list is more important than the size of your list. And that value is determined by the level of interest and engagement of the people you’re emailing. You build a list of interested, engaged subscribers by offering something relevant to your audience in a way they appreciate.
It seems counter-intuitive to focus on quality, not quantity, I know. But that’s where the ROI lies. To help you stay focused on the names that matter to your ROI, below are several do’s and don’ts of list building:
Do go for quality
| • |
Do be clear on what you’re going to offer to people who sign up. An email address has value, and like anything else of value, it requires a fair exchange to get it. Think of your request for an email address as equivalent to a barter transaction. What do you have of value that you can offer that person in exchange for their email address? Special prices? Exclusive products? A newsletter? Determine this before you start asking for signups. |
| • |
Do make sure to sell your email program, don’t just ask people to sign up. Make the signup compelling, give really good reasons why they should sign up. Be very clear what they’ll get if they do. |
| • |
Do ask people to sign up for your emails at every possible touch point:
• In your employees’ email signatures
• On every page of your website
• On your Facebook page
• In your blogs
• In every transactional email
• At checkout whether buying online or in person |
| • |
Do offer something of value in exchange for the email address, such as tip sheets, case studies or whitepapers. |
| • |
Do make your content worth sharing and people will grow your list for you. |
| • |
Do include a Forward-to-a-Friend link and a Share to Social link in every email. |
| • |
Do have a preference center to give possible subscribers the sense that they will have some control over the relationship with your company if they do sign up. |
| • |
Just because you’re after an email address doesn’t mean you have to limit your efforts to online. Offline include a flyer with your shipped orders, and have your customer service staff ask those who call if they’d like to subscribe. (Be sure to train them on how to sell the email signup first!) Ask for email signups during tradeshows and other events, and promote signups in your direct mail campaigns too. |
Don’t go for quantity
| • |
Don’t add everyone your company comes into contact with to your database. |
| • |
Don’t let your sales people do this either. |
| • |
Don’t use sweepstakes that get you plenty of names from people who want to win…but who never want to hear from you again. |
| • |
Don’t use third-party or co-registration techniques. |
Once you’re on the path to slowly but surely building that email list using the tips above, don’t forget to take immediate action when someone does sign up, so you can reassure them it was a smart move to make and get the relationship off to a good start. First give them a thank you or confirmation page. Next send a welcome email that briefly reiterates the benefits of subscribing, and tells them what to expect as far as type and frequency of the messages you’ll send.
And never lose sight of the fact that you have been entrusted with that email address. Maintain and even guard that trust. And do deliver what you promised.
For more tips, download Lyris’s guide to Bionic List Building
|
| |
|
Visit our Blog for up to date industry information and tips from the email experts |
 |
|
|
|
