Archive for July, 2010

Email list rental vs buying third party lists

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Have you ever thought about how good it would be if you could simply buy a list of client e-mail addresses in a click?

I hope you haven’t, because it is not worth it.
Unless you meant renting the list – email list rental is a pretty common practice.

The difference between the two (list rental and list buying) is huge. When it comes to email marketing and renting an e-mail list, you don’t get a copy of the list. In short, you never get to see the addresses – the owner does the sending for you. By renting a list you could be a featured business or sponsor of the renters next newsletter to their clients.

When buying an e-mail list, you get the addresses, and that is utterly bad. Not to mention the bad PR you will get if you send to people you don’t know. Not to mention the hundred reasons, among which legal trouble could or could not be the most serious. The worst part of bought e-mail lists is that they don’t work, especially if your business doesn’t sell penis pills… or something like that.

Although a buy third party list sounds like a great idea – you often only invest up to $500 for an e-mail list with millions of e-mail addresses -, sending spam spells a death sentence for business. Out of the millions of addresses which the seller acquired somehow, there will surely be spam complaints which can mean legal trouble. Furthermore, your brand will get severely damaged if you send unsolicited e-mail. Just don’t do it.

These lists do not work because they are overused; they don’t have a permission (how on earth would a 1m large list have permission from all the users?); they don’t have quality; and lastly, in case if you still have doubt about it, sending to third party lists is ogre-ish email marketing.

It is different with e-mail list rentals, though.
The price is the first indicator that they are more likely to work; depending on the nature of your emails, an email list rental costs an average of about $130 for 1,000 impressions according to LPI. Business is business, and the price is fair if you know how to make the most out of email list rental. You know how difficult is to acquire those 1,000 subscribers, but do you also want to be part of another brand who you are simply sponsoring.

Should you consider buying lists? – NO, just avoid buying any e-mail lists, doesn’t matter how good the offer sounds.

Build your own reliable and highly profitable lists by adding Web SignUp form to your website, run a promotional campaign in the store or ask for feedback and capture their email addresses this way best.

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Posted in Email Deliverability, Email List Management, Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments »

Effectively use email autoresponders and follow-up emails: autoresponder tips

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Autoresponders are underestimated. An email autoresponder can be used to set up follow-up email which you can employ in a million ways.

Here are a few email autoresponder tips — really, a few of them.

  • email autorespondersEducate the users by sending courses about your service/product – or simply courses that are likely to be relevant to the receiver;
  • Gather online surveys to gain information from new subscribers;
  • Thank the new user for joining your service;
  • Wish the user a happy birthday;
  • Give the user advice in case of inactivity; etc.

There are, however, even more creative ways in which you can employ follow up letters.

Imagine you are selling e-books about dogs, and are giving away a free e-book for new subscribers, titled “How to take care of your dog”. After the clients have received it, you don’t simply dwell on the huge success, but send relevant, regular follow-up emails that both remind the client to actually read the book, and give additional dog care advice that involves dog training.

At the, for example, third of your five follow-up emails, you introduce the client to your new eBook, the best-selling “How to train your dog”. Voila, you have now sold a product using follow-up emails.

There are hundreds of email autoresponder tips, these few are just a fraction of them. Most of the best autoresponder uses simply involve a little creative use of the stuff you already have.

For example, do you send a welcome message to your subscribers when they sign up? Good, because most businesses do. What most businesses don’t do is load the actual welcome message with links that should interest the new subscriber. If a subscriber is new, it may be one of his first visits; why not link him to this month’s most popular posts, among them to a post where you sell something the subscriber might like?

Email autoresponders are indeed underestimated, but that’s mostly because they aren’t used to doing creative things with them. The same old same old is boring; keep that in mind and do something new.

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Posted in Email Autoresponders, Tips & Tricks | No Comments »

The importance of the unsubscribe link

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Never underestimate the unsubscribe link.

Although it is what it is – in many cases a lost client – you can reinforce your way of thinking and make the most out of your unsubscribes. There are many different ways to try avoiding opt-outs, but they sometimes are the only feedback you’ll ever get. And remember – no clever way of placing (or omitting for that matter) of the unsubscribe link can save against a client who has lost interest in your services or products.

email unsubscribe
You need an unsubscribe link because:

  • You want to be polite to your customers.
  • You want to comply with the CAN-SPAM act.
  • You want to remain in good terms with your clients even after they’ve left you.
  • You want to gain useful information whenever a client unsubscribes.
  • You want to keep your list clean.
  • You don’t want more bad feedback from clients who would’ve left anyway.

…and the list goes on.

Simply put, you need an unsubscribe link, and to make the most of it, you should also include a simple textbox at the opt-out link where the user can write his reasons for leaving your list. While many users will leave the text box blank, you will gain enough information from those few who fill it.

Furthermore, think about the placement of the opt-out link. The latest studies indicate that a counter-intuitive unsubscribe link at the top of your e-mails reduces the number of spam complaints. As spam complaints usually come from inactive subscribers, you could simply join them in a segment and place the link in the top of the e-mails they receive.

You can gain valuable information from unsubscribing trends. An example of this would be an opt-out rise after you’ve sent too many e-mails during a week (4-5+). If there’s a such rise in unsubscribes, it’s time to decrease the e-mail volume. Maybe you aren’t using segments when sending the information and you need to send more targeted information when you see people unsubscribing after an apparently normal campaign?

And lastly, remember that nothing is really black and white when someone unsubscribes. The client may simply have chosen a different medium (Twitter?) to communicate with you; maybe the client has too many lists he/she has subscribed to. An opt-out doesn’t mean that you list is bad. A hundred opt-outs a day could indicate something, though.

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Posted in Email Deliverability, Tips & Tricks | 1 Comment »

Increase Email Deliverability

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

You’d be amazed if you saw the spam numbers of today. About 70 per cent of all e-mail sent is spam; furthermore, there are more than 14 billion unwanted email letters sent each day and spam generates annual losses of about $20b. These numbers are the reason behind the drastic spam filtering of today, and numerous businesses have become weary about the delivery of their newsletters.

Few Tips to Increase Email Deliverability

email deliverabilityThe most secure way of reassuring email delivery is to have clients manually add you to their address book. However, it seldom happens with regular customers. It is, however, important that you mention that they should add you to your address book for the simple reason that it can save emails. Mention something among lines like ‘Add us (company@email.com) to your address book in order to ensure delivery. Thank you!’ in your subscription form.

E-mail providers know about mailing lists and will allow your emails to go through unharmed if it appears that the subscriber has manually subscribed to the list.

  • Mentioning the subscriber’s name in the subject line is crucial, as personalized emails are rarely thought to be spam.
  • Among other possible things to ask, be sure to ask for the recipient’s name when he signs up.

Owners of more sizable lists have to be cautious; if numerous recipients of your emails mark your email as spam, you can start losing customer trust-and your email address can become blacklisted. Blacklisted email addresses can be automatically marked as spam by email providers and ISPs.

To avoid blacklisting…

  • be sure to provide an opt-out link;
  • send only relevant content;
  • don’t send it to people who haven’t subscribed to your list; et cetera.

However, blacklisting for newsletters is very rare and you can get your sender’s IP removed from the blacklist if you provide evidence that you only send email to your subscribers.

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Posted in Email Deliverability | 1 Comment »