Building a marketing mailing list is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to find and keep new customers. We use email marketing to send e-mails to acquire new customers and convince existing customers to make additional purchases. It’s also used to enhance the relationship of a business with existing and prospective customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
By building a mailing list, you can create an extremely valuable asset for your business.
The advantages of email
- Email allows you to send information to a wide range of existing and prospective customers far more cost-effectively than by direct mail or printed newsletters.
- Email marketing includes analytics to track your return on investment and is reportedly second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
- Delivery for an email is short (seconds or minutes) compared with a mailed advertisement (one or more days).
- Email marketing is ecologically friendly by being paper-free.
- If you have a large list, you can “rent” your list to third party marketing firms to mail other offers to people on your list (a potentially significant additional source of revenue for your business).
Building your mailing list
Include an email signup form on your website; innovative solutions include pop-ups and custom 404 error pages, as well as more standard widgets. You might consider giving away a free report, “how-to”, or white paper as an incentive for people to subscribe to your list.
It is also possible to collect the email address of anyone that drops out of your sales funnel on your ecommerce checkout page after entering their email address. You could, for example, send them a follow-up email offering a discount to complete the sale.
Once a person submits an email address to you, they become an opt-in subscriber. However, you shouldn’t just send them emails attempting to sell things. Rather, offer them information, free reports, news and advice. They will be more likely to purchase as something you recommend to them, not just as something you are selling.
Key points
- Sending unsolicited email is against the law and can involve severe penalties for anyone caught in violation.
- Only send email to a person when they have “opted-in” to receive it. When you collect an email address, be sure to explain how you intend to use it. Include a privacy policy on your web site and place a link to it next to your email collection box.
- Large volumes of spam make it harder to deliver legitimate commercial email into people’s inboxes. Speciality software and service firms have emerged to help businesses manage their email marketing and ensure that their emails are not blocked as spam.
- It takes time and effort to maintain and grow a mailing list, which can end up being your most powerful Internet marketing tool.
Edward Solomon has over 30 years’ experience in project management, technical education, computer networking, web design and development and is a Digital Business Consultant for PENNInk Productions Ltd.
