Email list management - Part I

E-mail list management is core to creating a vibrant successful email program. By managing your email lists well you can ensure that you effectively reach your target audience and build the foundation for a successful program.

Build Your Email Lists—

You can do this with newsletter sign-ups from your website, offline subscriptions and subscriptions from other lists and websites.

To promote permission-based subscription on your website or landing page, there are a number of actions you can perform.

1. Place your sign-up form prominently on your homepage, visible on the first screen. Collect additional information, such as birthdays and email list preferences. Good design and prioritized placement should draw the eye to this form.

2. Put subscription forms on nearly every page in your site.

3. Provide a rationale and explain the benefits of subscription in a compelling way. 

4. Incentives always seem to work. Offer free e-books, entry in a contest to win an iPhone or car, discount coupons, and the promise of Internet-only specials. However incentives are a double edged sword. You may dilute the quality of your audience unless you provide the right incentive. For example a free entry into a race may be a great incentive to a e-mail newsletter for runners.

5. In your newsletters, encourage use of the “forward to a friend” function.

If you have the kind of business where you contact your customers on the phone or face-to-face, then you may want to encourage offline subscriptions. And then have a system of uploading the information at your end. This  will not only help you cross sell to the base – it will also help you to significantly reduce the operational costs

1. Ask customers to subscribe and collect their email addresses as you take their orders. Explore if there is a way to collect e-mail address as part of set up and service process

2. Display your domain on all printed materials with the benefits of your newsletter -- on sales collateral, fliers, bags, business cards, advertising, etc. Provide registration forms at retail outlets like stores, restaurants, or salons and bowls to collect business cards.

3. Include registration forms in direct mail pieces to collect more email contacts and solicit newsletter subscriptions.

An interesting and effective way to collect subscriptions is through tie ups. You may want to tie up with related products and services to have people sign up for your s-mails.

1. Ask for a subscription after customers make online purchases.  Ask them to check a box to indicate whether they want to receive a free newsletter subscription

2. Find partners who you can co-register with. Ask them to place your subscription form on their web pages and offer to put their subscription forms on your pages.

3. You can do the same with newsletters. Ask the editors to plug your newsletter to their lists in exchange for you plugging their newsletters to your list.

Again it is important to make sure you do this for related products and services to ensure you don’t run into email addresses that provide no value for your business.