Darren Contardo's Netrepreneur

Use Your List

OK, you've worked hard to develop your email marketing list. Whether you're using for sales leads, selling advertising, direct sales, or just plain old content distribution you could be using it much more effectively.

How? Well, how about for primary market research for one? The big companies out there like to use focus groups and surveys to get their marketing insights. But you can do one better! Use your own email list. Since you're practising permission-based marketing and communicating with your customers who've raised their hand, why not get their opinions, insights, and demographic information.

Say for example, you want to develop a new product, but not sure if the market will respond to it. Just develop some creative and ask your subscribers in a survey format if they would buy the product/service, how much they would pay for it, and if they perceive value with the product/service. You can add more or less questions if you want, but you get the idea. So save the flashy focus groups to the bigwigs and get the best answers from the people who matter most...YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS.

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Email got you bogged down?

Email got you bogged down?

Here's a couple things I've done:

1. Unsubscribed from about 75% of my industry newsletters and opted for RSS feeds if available. Now I get the info when I want it.

2. Told my colleagues that if it's important, pick up the phone and call.

3. For my immediate team, all emails that require attention are to have an A, B, or C priority associated to them.4. Spend the first 10-15 minutes every day cleaning out the junk if any made it through. The rest gets thrown in either a document retention folder or an A,B,C inbox.

A = 1 day reply
B = 2-3 day reply
C = 3 days or more reply

This little system has worked wonders! Give it a try.

Notice how they just ask

Notice how they just ask for the email only. Not too intrusive and quite friendly. Once you fill it in, you are directed to a page where you can fill more information in and subscribe. Brilliant!

Up Your Email Acquisition by

Up Your Email Acquisition by 30% in a few simple steps!

So you've decided to use email marketing as way to communicate with your customers and gather some demographics or other consumer insights. Well, if you're following best practices, you're most likely having a double opt-in approach. But I propose another simple solution:

To be compliant with CAN SPAM you only need to practice single opt-in which is still express consent. Acquiring people this way, will increase your subscription rate signficantly...but what about that 30% increase I was talking about? Here's the easy, simple trick...don't hide the subscription, have it on all pages and make it simple. Take a look at how SharperImage does it...

Once you implement this simple change on your website, I'm sure you're going to increase your subscription rate by 30% or so. Let me know how it works for you.

Think Big!

DC

Email Marketing: The basics? Well,

Email Marketing: The basics?

Well, some believe that email marketing is the best thing since sliced bread, but I believe it is more like a whole loaf. Sure it's very efficient and effective, but it is costly dependant on volume and it can cause some confusion. However, it is using the principle of permission marketing that is extremely effective in gaining the confidence of your customers. Something to remember though...are you willing to generate the valuable content and provide a solid value proposition for your subscribers? In using permission marketing you need to respect your subscriber's wishes.

1. Give them the content they ask for.
If they say they are interested in home gardening, stock tips, and self help books...by all means don't push your latest AS SEEN ON TV garbage product at them, they'll unsubscribe and tell others about the "ethical spam" that your company partakes in.

2. Respect their time.
If you have the option of selecting weekly, monthy, or quarterly newsletters on your website, but decide to blast emails off to your list every time you have a new product or an idea, they'll backlash so bad and unsubscribe faster than you can blink! DON'T DO IT, PERIOD!

3. Give them exclusive stuff.
They have you their information because they are interested in your business. Give them something back! A coupon, a special article, at least something of a perceived value. This is what we refer to as a "value exchange"; Tit for tat. Trust me, they'll love you for it and probably forward it to some friends, which is viral and we all love that!

4. Don't go for their throat!
Build the relationship. Trust is critical on the Net. If someone subscribes to your email list, don't fire off a catalogue at them right away (unless this is your core business), have a conversation with them, give them a little bit of info and ask for feedback every chance you get. The more involved a consumer is with your business, the higher the likelihood that they'll be more receptive to an offer and come back for more (loyalty).

5. Make it easy to subscribe and unsubscribe.
Don't make your customer jump through hoops to get on your list. Ask for the bare minimum of information from them to get subscribed (tip, use email and first name only if you can). Remember the trust issue?75% of people will give false information when asked of too personal questions.

Every email sent should have an unsubscribe link. If you can, please make it a one-click unsubcribe, where they just have to verify if they want to unsubscribe. Trust me, their respect is worth it. This is referred to as express consent.

6. Be compliant with email.
Compliant? Yes, compliant! Email marketing is now seen as a priviledge and an advertising medium that can infringe on people's basic privacy. Follow the CAN SPAM guidelines and save yourself some headaches.

7. Choose your email provider wisely. Don't do it yourself.
This is simple. Email marketing is complex, ISPs, blacklists, spam, bounces, etc. Use a professional service to help make your efforts successful. VerticalResponse is a good choice for Small companies that need a good system at a low cost.

There's way more to discuss on email, but I'll touch on it later. We'll get into how to measure it effectively.

Think Big!

DC