Opt in, Permission Based, Email List Marketing

Email marketing works! Permission based Email marketing yields, on the average, a 10% to 15% response rate as compared to direct mail, which is well below 5%. Additionally, the cost of email marketing is less than 1/10th that of direct mail.

1. Get permission.

		Offer something of value, like weekly fitness tips, etc.
		Ensure it is an opt-in permission and allow for easy opt-out.
		Be wary of list brokers because you don't always know the source of a list. Rules of thumb - use double opt-in, make it very easy to unsubscribe, make it clear where the message is coming from, and don't rent your list.

2. Plan for a long term relationship.

		Determine how much information you need.
		Develop trust.
		Follow through on your promises.
		Offer value.
		The goal is to maximize your customer relationship to eventually get to a one-to-one relationship. You want to communicate the right information to the right customer at the right time.

3. Convert an in-house list to an opt-in permission based email list.

		Your customers must have given you the email list and permission to send information.
		80% of users said that they prefer to check the box to opt in versus uncheck the opt-in box that you already have checked.
		Only ask them once - after that dispose of the email address and don't solicit them again.

4. Use your web site to get names

		Make it very easy - put "join" on home page and in prominent locations throughout the web site.
		Tell them what they are subscribing to and make sure it has value, i.e. track and field results.
		A subscriber preference page is a sophisticated method of collecting emails to segment your customers to receive very customized information, i.e. which events do you compete in.
		Offer something of value, like a sign-up to receive special online sales only for Internet customers.
		Determine what information will be collected: demographics, personal preferences, name, and anything that could be important in developing a meaningful relationship with the customer.

5. Ethically use partnerships and third party lists

		Co-marketing options.
		Third party opt-in lists.
		Make sure it is a genuine opt-in list!

6. Use advocacy marketing

		Advocacy marketing is where you leverage your existing customers to gain new ones.
		Tell a friend.
		Word of mouth.
		Don't force it.
		Don't allow other customers to sign their friends up for your list - let them pass the offer along, but not sign them up.
		Structure it so that the customer sends your offer to a friend, not the company.
		Don't encourage your customers to send the offer to more than ten friends.
		Limit the number of incentives that

7. Sponsor a list or newsletter.

		Discussion lists
		Newsletters
		Co-marketing

8. Use all your internal resources to build your list.

		Put information on brochures.
		Put information on Catalogues.
		Use email signature files.
		Press releases.

9. Consider all customer touch points.

10. Take care of details

		Personalize messages.
		Respond quickly.
		Confirmations are a great way to solidify you relation with the customer, and up-sell or cross-sell your customer.
		Make it easy to unsubscribe
		More Ideas on building a House List

Sign up for our free 30-day Email Marketing trial today, or view our affordable pricing plans.

Step 1: Set Realistic Expectations
You will not achieve 100 percent email coverage on your database. Why? Quite simply, many consumers and business people do not have an email address -- hard to believe for those of us in the online world but it's true. Roughly 50 percent of American consumers do not have an email address of their own; the same is true for about 25 percent of employees in the business marketplace. And not all of those with e-mail addresses are willing to give them to you.
Because of concerns consumers have over spam and privacy, a realistic goal for collecting e-mail addresses would be around 40 percent of your customer base and roughly 60 percent for a B2B marketer's customer base. Of course, these percentages will increase as the e-mail equipped population continues to increase.

Step 2: E-mail Append
Let's say you currently possess 10 percent email coverage of your customer base and you set a realistic goal of 40 percent coverage. How do you get there quickly and cost effectively? I suggest you start with an email append. Expect anywhere from a 5 percent to 20 percent append rate at a cost of between 40 and 75 cents, depending on volume discounts, per e-mail address appended.
The appending process is when an outside company with an extremely large database does a search for someone by name and address and sees if they have an email address for that person. If they do then they can append it or add it to your database. For example, you give them a list of 100 names and addresses of your customers. You dont currently have the email address of your customers, but you would like to get it. The email appending company tries to locate these people and then sends them an email on your behalf asking if they would like to be added to your list.

Step 3: Analytics
Let's assume the email append process supplied you with additional email addresses and your email coverage has now increased from 10 percent to 25 percent. A great start, but you still lack e-mail addresses for 75 percent of your database. So how are you going to prospect among that 75 percent in order to help you reach your goal of 40 percent e-mail coverage?
Obviously, cost remains a major concern. Offline targeting of that 75 percent would be ridiculously expensive and unproductive. How can you best pre-identify that 15 percent subset? The answer lies in analytics.
Linear regression or cluster segmentation can be cost-effectively applied to predict those customers most likely, and most unlikely, to provide e-mail permission. Use the 10 percent of customers that previously provided their e-mail address as a dependant variable. You want to find more customers with profile characteristics similar to this audience. The model will determine those characteristics and develop a formula, which predicts a likelihood to opt-in score.
Next, run this model across the 75 percent segment of non-email customers to predict each customer's likelihood to opt-in. This scoring identifies the customers which the marketer can cost-effectively focus the task of offline email collection.

Step 4: Least Expensive Offline Contact Method
Once the model identifies the best target audience, utilize the least- costly offline contact method possible. Whether it is a postcard mailing, a billing stuffer, or an inbound customer service call depends on your situation, but use your least expensive contact method to ask for their email address.
Don t forget, like any good direct marketing effort, you need an offer, a reason for your customer to opt-in. The reason could be a discount promotion available only through email. Often, white papers make the best offers as they cost little while immediately demonstrating that you use email to send, not spam, valuable and relevant information.
When collecting email via postal submission or via telephone, always send the customer a thank you e-mail confirming their permission and re-disclose your intended use of their email address with another opt-out opportunity.

Step 5: Permission Audit Trail
Absolutely, positively, maintain a database log on how you obtained the customer's permission, when you obtained it, as well as any steps you took to confirm the permission.
Given the increasing legal implications to email marketing, you should document every step. Maintain proof that you used only permission and ethical techniques in building your email database. The inability to prove this point could undo your email database efforts overnight if a customer contacts the authorities accusing your company of spamming.
In summary, building an email database intelligently means setting realistic goals and employing a combination of appends, analytics, and offline collection. Documenting the permission confirmation processes with an audit trail protects your email database investment. Building a customer email database is certainly not inexpensive. However, the value gained in terms of decreasing messaging costs, increasing messaging frequency, and generating incremental revenue makes an e-mail database a highly worthwhile investment.

Sign up for our free 30-day Email Marketing trial today, or view our affordable pricing plans.