DCP Dialogue

Is There a Quick and Easy Way to Build Quality Email Lists?

Over the past several months, I’ve noticed a considerable surge in the number of emails I receive from people trying to sell me email lists. Today I received five. I’ve been encouraged, thinking that perhaps this intensified marketing effort is a sign that there’s new data supporting the viability of purchasing email lists. Wouldn’t it be great to buy a list of email addresses and suddenly multiply your avid subscriber base without much effort? So I decided to do some investigating.

What I found is that nothing has changed, only email list marketers have become more aggressive. Unfortunately, it’s still true that you can’t simply purchase subscribers. But I did come across several articles that provide useful tips on how to build your lists.

In the Bionic List Building Guide from Lyris we’re reminded, “Although there are many strategies for list building, the main thing to remember is that the possession of an email address does not mean you have the owner’s explicit permission to market to them via email. By law, you must get them to opt-in.” This guide goes on to provide a useful list of techniques to convert raw names into opt-in subscribers. You can subscribe to download it.

In his article Email Address Lists: Buy, Rent or Leave Alone? Mark Brownlow discusses the benefits of list rental compared to the risks of buying a list. This article is not new, but the content remains relevant. In reference to buying bulk email lists, Brownlow says, “At best, your messages to that list just elicit a poor response. At worst, you’re labeled a spammer, which has numerous practical consequences—all of them bad—for your brand, bottom line and ability to do business over the Internet.”

The challenge is to take a list of raw names, presumably people who are interested in your company’s products and services, and get their permission to send them regular marketing communications or newsletters via email. To summarize, the main tips are:

• Ask for opt-ins at every chance you get—in phone calls, newsletters, social media, home page of website, email signature, trade shows, direct mail, etc.
  
• Partner with complementary organizations to attract their subscribers to opt-in to your list.
  
• Offer incentives to motivate people to subscribe.
  
• Ask your subscribers to share the word and forward your message to a friend.

The bottom line is, there is no substitute for building your own email list of people who have expressed an interest in your company's products and services.

Newspapers Use Email to Grow Their Audience

According to Chuck DeFeo, GM of interactive and social media at The Washington Times, “It’s not a secret that the newspaper industry is facing some unprecedented challenges. But we are finding that by focusing on email to deliver high quality news, we are driving readership online—and also reinvigorating our reader base offline.”

Check out this DMNews article by Dianna Dilworth. In it, Dilworth tells how The Washington Times and The New York Times are using email newsletters to drive traffic to their websites, bring revenues up online, and even increase print subscriptions.

There’s something valuable to be learned here. Even if your end goal is to communicate with your audience via print publications, email newsletters are effective vehicles to engage consumers.

How Can My Social Media Efforts Support My Email Marketing Programs and Vice Versa?

We’re all trying to figure out exactly how social media fits into and boosts our marketing efforts. Last week, I highlighted a Q&A with Paul Gillin, where he touched on the overlap between social media and direct marketing. Today, I’d like to point out two interesting articles from DM News that address ways that social media and email marketing support each other. They are:

• Problem Solver: “How can I integrate social media with my email marketing program?” by Nicholas Einstein

• “How to use social media to grow your email list” by Morgan Stewart

Here’s what I’ve learned from these articles. Email (one-to-one personal communication) is the preferred vehicle to convey promotional offers and drive transactions. Social networks are a great platform from which you can provide customer service and collaborate with fans. Ideally, people will follow you in both channels. Therefore, you want to use each channel to drive your audience to the other channel.

I’ve summarized the synergies between social media and email marketing into four main beneficial actions:

1. Listen to and learn from your social community—let your fans help you hone your marketing message (same point that Paul Gillin made for direct marketing).

2. Deepen communications with your audience by giving them multiple ways to converse with you. If people find you on social media, make it easy for them to link to your email programs. If you reach them via email marketing, encourage them to join your social communities.

3. Make it easy for your audience to spread the word and tell others about you by adding a “share-to-social” function in your email communications.

4. Encourage people to subscribe to all types of communications with your organization. Make sure members of your social networks know they can stay in touch via email subscriptions and invite people to join your social communities via email messages.

The bottom line is, we want to have as many conversations with our audience as possible and we want to encourage them to share these discussions with their friends.

Email Newsletter Tracking—More Revealing Than You’d Think

Email newsletters are an excellent way to communicate with your audience frequently and cost effectively but one of the most exciting aspects of sending out an e-newsletter is tracking the results. Do you know how insightful and enlightening the data can be?

Our clients are often surprised by how much we see about their email readers’ behavior. We can tell:

• Who (by name and email address) opened the email
• How many times and when each person opened the email
• Who clicked on a link
• Which precise links they clicked on
• How many times each person clicked on a link
• Who forwarded the email to someone else
• Who unsubscribed to the email
• Which email addresses bounced
• Etc., etc., etc.

From scouring this data, I learn a lot about the type of information readers are interested in. I can track trends from one email to the next and measure whether I’m keeping their interest, growing it, or losing it. By sifting through the open and click lists, I discover who specifically responds to and who ignores my emails. I can even find out that someone has likely changed or lost their job (repeated bounces).

I have warned many of my co-workers and clients, “Don’t tell me that you opened my e-newsletter if you didn’t. I know when you’re lying.” What I don’t tell them is that they can avert my eye and go under the radar if they read my email in their Outlook preview pane without actually opening the email. But let’s keep that quiet.

If you haven’t found the motivation yet to send out an e-newsletter, the benefits you get from the tracking data might be a good reason to get started. It’s the easiest and cheapest way to find out how your audience reacts to your message.

Email Newsletter Report Card—How do you stack up?

It’s always exciting to track the statistics after an email newsletter goes out. How many people opened it? Who opened it? How many times did they click on links? Which links? It’s easy to follow trends in your own email broadcasts but how do you know how your email program ranks compared to others?

A recent DemandGen Report article, New DMA Response Rate Study Shows Email Still Strong For Conversion Rates, provides some answers.

Too much of a good thing?

While I realize that it's never prudent to mix business and politics, I'm going to go out on a limb and admit that I voted for Obama for President.  Certainly not a huge surprise to those who know me.  But what does this fact have to do with the world of communicating brand value?

The reason for my admission is to raise a question about the Obama Administration's use of email post-election to rally Americans to support its policies and programs.

While I'm pleased to have a President who understands the role of technology in communication (remember the controversy about his continued use of a Blackberry?) and one who understands the value and importance of communicating with his "market" on an ongoing basis, I have found myself suffering from Obama email fatigue and wonder how many others are starting to feel the same way.

What Stirs People to Open Your Email Newsletter?

It’s no surprise that the “from” address and subject line are the primary determining factors we use to decide whether or not to open an email message. The “from” field helps us determine if the email is coming from a trusted source, while the subject line statement motivates us to open or delete. Since the subject message is so crucial, we take our time with it and write it last. In general, we try to be precise, concise, thought-provoking, and unique.

After reading dozens of articles on the subject and writing many subject lines myself, I’ve compiled a list of the Top Ten Subject Line Tips that we rely on at DCP.