Thinking Of Buying An Email List? Think Again
Davis
So, you want to start an email newsletter to stay connected to your customers?
What's that? You plan to buy a list off the Internet? Stop right there!
Buying a list of email addresses is going to sink your email marketing plan before it even starts, according to Chad White, principal of marketing research for Exact Target, an Indianapolis-based provider of email marketing services. (Disclosure: The Worcester Business Journal is an Exact Target client.)
“Those [lists] are almost always complete garbage,” White said of emails for sale. Such lists are often “scraped off the Internet” and often contain out-of-date addresses or generic addresses like sales@companyxyz.com, that don't make it to an actual human being. And sending emails to spam trap addresses can get your enewsletter blocked so that your real customers never even see it.
“Buying a list is almost like throwing in the towel,” White added. “You're essentially torpedoing your email channel from the get-go.”
'White Hat' Options
Buying a list is bad. But renting isn't out of the question, if it's done right, according to White. Renting an email list means you find an outlet that already has an email subscriber list that matches the audience you want to target. For example, if you want to reach doctors, you might approach a local medical association about renting its list for payment or barter. In this scenario, you don't send the email yourself, you just provide the message, and you never see who actually subscribes. But you can include an email subscription call within the message in order to grow your own subscriber list organically.
But if there aren't any lists for you to rent, where do you start when you're trying to build up a subscriber list?
White said the best source is your sales and customer service operations. If you have a CRM (customer relationship management) system, you should be able to pull out all the email contacts you have on file and ask those folks to subscribe to your newsletter. You shouldn't, according to White, simply start bombarding everyone in your CRM system with daily emails.
“You want them to ask for it,” he said.
But retailers should think twice before you just put out a piece of paper with a pen at a register. Chances are you won't be able to read people's writing. Instead, White recommends having people type their addresses themselves on an electronic device, like an iPad. Or ask the customer to spell their email address and have your cashier type it in.
“The accuracy there is much higher,” White said.
Is more better? Shouldn't a company always be striving to grow its list?
Not necessarily, White says. Businesses should measure and try to grow the level of engagement, rather than the total number of subscribers. An engaged list — one in which a majority are opening and clicking on content — will deliver greater value.
White gave an example of a large national retailer that cut its massive list in half, eliminating all unengaged subscribers. The result? Better holiday season numbers, because the email subscriber list was filled with engaged customers, ready to buy.
One local firm that does track email subscriber engagement is the law firm of Mirick O'Connell, which has offices in Worcester and Westborough. The firm's marketing manager, Maureen Grenier, said they have thousands of subscribers and average a healthy open rate, ranging between 30 and 50 percent depending on the message.
The firm's opt-out level is pretty low.Grenier said her team tries to tailor messages to subsets of subscribers.
“We do have different lists, based on the audience,” she said.
In other words, news about changes in patent law only go to a small group of subscribers, while trust and estate news goes out to the entire list.
The secret to maintaining the email list at Mirick O'Connell has been a firm-wide commitment to always ask clients for their emails, and then constantly keeping those records up-to-date. That includes asking partners to review the contact information that's on file for their clients at least once a year.
Grenier is also mindful of the frequency of email messages.
“You don't want to oversaturate,” she said. n
Christina Davis can be reached at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
Read more
Find Out What's On Customers' Minds: 7 Tips To Building Online Surveys
Should Your Website Be Responsive? Behind The Buzzword
6 Tips For Producing Memorable Online Videos
Credit Card Processing Swiping Your Sanity?
HealthCare.gov Lessons: Picking An IT Consultant
Where To Focus Your Social Media Efforts? A Demographic Guide
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments