| Savvy businesspersons
know that online marketing using email is quicker, easier, and cheaper than traditional
mass mailings. A recent report from Forrester Research,
Inc., predicts that in 2004, marketers will send more than 200 billion emails. Whether you are marketing by "snail" mail or
email, you will have to pay for a mailing list and for the composition of the promotional
or marketing material. The advantage of email, however, is that it requires only a
monthly fee for Internet access. You don’t incur the expenses of stationery,
envelopes, mailing labels, printing supplies, postage, and the labor associated with
printing the material and stuffing envelopes.
To market or promote successfully via email,
however, you must have a good list of contacts.
How Can You Obtain a Good Mailing List?
- Develop your own.
Your most successful list will be the one you compile
yourself by acquiring the names and addresses of previous customers, persons who have
expressed interest in your products, or others who have been in touch with your business.
When customers visit your Web site, your brick-and-mortar store, or your booth at a trade
show, give them an opportunity to place their email addresses on your mailing list. Make
sure the registration form tells them that you will use the addresses for marketing and
promotion.
- Rent from a list compiler who obtains information
from public records and categorizes it to fit the needs of marketers. Experian is one such compiler.
- Rent through a list broker. This intermediary
will examine your needs, then help you buy a list from someone else. Copywriter.com is one source of
list brokers.
Brokers have no accrediting
organization, so request references and ask how the broker will be paid. Although you will
find it cheaper to use a broker paid by the list owner, remember that the broker will be
working for the owner of the list, not for you.
Ask if the company will track the click-through
rate, and if the company has the ability to send messages sorted according to zip code or
area code. Most reputable companies will spend a brief amount of time helping you write or
critiquing your message, says Maria DiSanto, owner of Key Promotions, an internet
marketing firm based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Also consider whether you can communicate with
someone at the company on the telephone, instead of solely relying on Web-based
communication, DiSanto says.
What Sources Provide E-mail Lists?
How Does the Rental Process Work?
Lists usually are rented in batches of a
thousand, with a minimum of 3,000 to 5,000 names for one-time use. Take the precaution of
renting just a portion of the list for test marketing. If results are satisfactory, you
can rent the entire list.
Some list owners may ask to see your marketing
materials to verify that they do not offend the recipients. List owners may require a
neutral party to do the mailing so that you never actually see the names and addresses on
the list. List owners also may include "special" names on the list. These names
return the mailing to the list owners and may indicate if someone has "stolen"
the list by reusing it.
Because you will have to sign a contract in
order to use the list, violation of that contract will leave you open to legal action.
Your negotiating options include asking for a
discount or a rebate if a certain percentage of the addresses is invalid. You should also
make sure that the list-rental company can segment the database, so that AOL users, for
example, will not receive your message in HTML format.
How Can You Test a List?
Test your list at the beginning of a direct
email project by sending your email to a small portion of the addresses on the list.
If the response is good, you know the list is
good, and you should proceed with the project. A poor response means you need to revamp
the list or your marketing materials before continuing with the mailing.
In fact, you may want to test several lists and
compare results before deciding which one to rent.
E-mail also makes it simple to test different
promotions, different prices, different products, and other such aspects within a given
list. For details, read "Step-By-Step
Direct Mail Testing," by Galen Stilson.
You may be tempted to skip an extensive testing
process, but test results can save you a great deal of time and money. Of course,
it’s easy to market without testing, but the test results will help you fine-tune
your marketing package and its presentation to make them as effective as possible.
How effective is that? DiSanto estimates that a
successful e-commerce campaign can result in a 5 to 17 percent response rate with 4
percent of those respondents becoming customers.
How Can You Create a Successful E-mail
Message?
When marketing via email, an attention-getting
subject line is essential. The subject line should draw the reader into the body of the
email, where the first few lines should be the most riveting.
Compose your email as if it were being sent
only to one person. If possible, personalize it by putting the recipient’s name or
geographic location in the subject line.
"Keep the message simple," says
DiSanto. "Include your URL in the message. I’ve actually gotten messages that
say, 'Click here,’ and there’s no link."
Provide information, as well as sales material,
in your emails. "Many of us in Internet business have found there is a lot of value
in publishing information for an audience as a way we can develop a reputation and a
presence in our industry," says Al Bredenberg, publisher of The Direct E-mail List
Source. "It’s what you might call a service market. It helps them [customers] to
develop confidence in you."
The following sites give tips about composing an
email marketing message:
How Can You Make Sure Your E-mails Are
Welcome?
Spam, unwanted email solicitations, annoys many
consumers. Some recipients participate in online efforts to keep their names off mailing
lists and may even devise ways to cause technical problems for you.
If Internet service providers believe you are
sending spam they can block your emails. So take the following precautions:
- Recognize the differences between email and
"snail" mail marketing.
"People
view their email boxes differently from the way they view their post office boxes,"
says Bredenberg. "They’re more protective of their email boxes. There’s a
privacy issue and also a cost issue. If you send me a direct mail package, you pay the
cost. But if you send me an email message, I pay the cost of that. If I’m receiving
spam emails all day long, you’re forcing me to bear the cost of your advertising.
That’s not fair."
Be sure, advises DiSanto, that all persons on
the list have asked to be included. When your customers give you their email address make
sure they realize that you plan to put them on an "opt-in" list, which means you
will contact them to provide useful information and to promote your business and products.
As DiSanto notes, a spam list may cost only 2 to
3 cents per name, as compared to an opt-in list charging 15-20 cents per name; but the
conversion rate for the opt-in list will be much higher.
If you use a self-generated list and plan to
re-use it, keep copies of the forms on which customers gave you their addresses. If a
customer later accuses you of spamming, you have the form to prove that the customer asked
to be placed on the mailing list.
Each time you send a mailing, make sure it
offers recipients the option to unsubscribe. If they ask you to remove their name from
your mailing list, do so.
- Be aware of risks.
Consumers who feel their privacy is being invaded with
pushy emails "are in more of a position to retaliate" then those who receive a
direct mail package in their post office box, Bredenberg warns. "On the Internet,
they can create more trouble for business. Businesses have to assess the risk and use a
low-risk strategy."
Who’s Been Successful in Electronic
Marketing?
Here’s one example: EdGate.com, Inc., for whom Bredenberg works, publishes a
series of newsletters for teachers. The company markets these newsletters by advertising
in other email newsletters. "We’ve built our subscriber list from zero to
20,000 in the last six months," Bredenberg says. "Our Web site traffic has
increased in proportion to that."
He estimates the cost at about 50 cents for each
new subscription. "That’s not inconsiderable, but it gives us a permanent
audience we can speak to."
Where Can You Seek Additional Tips?
"If you know your audience and your goals,
you probably are headed for success," DiSanto says. "And you should always have
a follow-up plan. If the mailing works, do more. If it doesn’t work, evaluate."
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