Starting a Mailing List II
| Category: E-mail Marketing | Date: 2003-05-23 |
The first article in this series gave you an overview of using mailing lists to create or enhance an internet marketing program. Now I'd like to direct your attention to some of the ways in which you can tailor your message to fit your subscriber's preferences - increasing your odds of reaching a receptive target. By comparison, the traditional direct mail approach is like trying to fill a teacup with a fire hose - a very small proportion of the volume hits the target.
Let's focus on the use of a mailing list to prospect for customers. The goal is to build a subscriber list of self-qualified prospects. The product or service you sell may be the content of the mailing itself , for which you charge a subscription fee; you may use it to deliver linked advertising messages from other vendors; or you may use it as a vehicle to point the reader to promotions of your own. To succeed in any of these areas you must keep your readers looking forward to receiving your mail.
Your learning curve starts with checking out the mailing lists that have some affinity to your field of interest. Once you have experienced the ebb and flow of both desirable and unwanted e-mail accumulation, you will develop some criteria for your own format. The low budget approach is to build your list slowly by learning what works with your early subscribers. You or a member of your staff must pay close attention to the management of the list in the early stages to avoid slowing the traffic you are trying to build. Here are some of the speed bumps you're likely to encounter:
The FLAMER. Let us assume you have got your plan together, decided on your theme, and know who you want to attract. You know better than to send an e-mail broadcast to strangers announcing your new service. You invite subscribers with an announcement on your Website. Your initial mailings will go out to those visitors who express interest and to potential subscribers you have identified from your participation in other groups, from your own customer lists or members of associations you sponsor or belong to. No matter how "flameproof" you think you are, you may still hit a recipient who takes umbrage at your message or its "commercial" content. Flamers frequently express their dudgeon in vile and colorful language (or copious lines of nonsense).
The BOUNCER. The most frequent cause of bounced messages is the subscriber who wants to "unsubscribe" and has not managed to follow directions. Even though most autoresponders display unsubscribe instructions with each message you send, some readers will not interpret the instructions correctly. Frustration can lead to anger and expressed hosility (see the FLAMER). Recognize that some bounced messages are the result of changed addresses, improperly configured software or typographical errors you or the subscriber introduced. Bounced messages should be routinely reviewed to determine the cause of the rejection by the autoresponder.
The PROMOTER. If you have entered the mailing list derby by participating in other discussion lists, as I have, then discreetly posting a note about your own fledgling list, you know the value and the peril of this form of self- promotion. It's a quick way to get booted off someone else's list. If you do not intend to tightly monitor your own list, you may end up obligingly distributing the most blatent forms of commercial messages to "your" prospects.
Here are some of the techniques that will help you stay on track while your list is building.
1. Keep your list current. This means purging it of incorrect addresses before each new mailing. Removing addresses of the failed "unsubscribe" requests will help head off the smoldering potential Flamer.
2. Encourage feedback. If you receive negative comments - and you will - turn it into an opportunity to pose questions to your subscribers that will bring them into collaboration with you.
3. Make sure you fully understand the operation of your server software (whether it is maintained by you or your ISP). My own experiments with new e-mail software resulted in an embarassing overload of garbled text in my subscribers' mailboxes or accidently including everyone's address. A good practice is to send a few test messages to friendly - and tolerant-associates before treating your whole mailing list to your innovations.
4. To be sure that the content you send to your list has value for the reader, do some test marketing among your initial subscribers. Better, maintain a core list of friendly critics to experiment with. Don't commit yourself to a format before you have explored the interest and tolerance level of your test group.
Here are some of the content formats you can try:
1. Announcement - This includes newsletters, periodic bulletins, and other one-way communications that you prepare and deliver on a regular schedule. You can incorporate classified advertising or promotions of other vendors as part of your content. You can invite contributions by outside contributors or exchange your own writings with editors of other publications.
2. Discussion - In this format you encourage your readers to contribute ideas, information, opinion, business leads and news items. You can use this format to conduct formal or informal surveys as well. The discussion format is a good way to get feedback about products or services you offer.
3. Digest - You combine regular mailings with an archive server where readers can obtain more detailed information from your server, or outside sources, by request sent in the form of an e-mail message to an address you specify. This is a good way to offer tech support to your customers.
4. User directed. - Using cutting edge technology, the so-called "third generation" or "smart sites" on the Web are developing automated "paging" tools that permit visitors to configure an autoresponder to send them e-mail only on those subjects that they have pre- selected. This form of mailing list works best with highly interactive Websites.
To get you started, I have assembled a bibliography of mailing list sources and examples for you to explore at: "Mailing-List" Target="_BLANK">http://www.referrals.com/articles/">Mailing-List Resources.
In the final article in this series, I will discuss the software options available for maintaining your mailing list.
Carl Kline, MBA
About the Author
For additional information on the subject of Cyber-Dollars: A collection of papers, articles, reports, and links to Internet resources related to Network Payment Mechanisms and Digital Cash. http://www.wsdinc.com/pgs_www/w7199.shtml
A collection of proposed network payment and/or digital cash systems. http://ganges.cs.tcd.ie/mepeirce/Project/proposed.html
Mr. Kline runs the following websites: referrals.com, http://www.4expertise.com and http://www.theventure.com
kline@referrals.com
http://www.referrals.com
Let's focus on the use of a mailing list to prospect for customers. The goal is to build a subscriber list of self-qualified prospects. The product or service you sell may be the content of the mailing itself , for which you charge a subscription fee; you may use it to deliver linked advertising messages from other vendors; or you may use it as a vehicle to point the reader to promotions of your own. To succeed in any of these areas you must keep your readers looking forward to receiving your mail.
Your learning curve starts with checking out the mailing lists that have some affinity to your field of interest. Once you have experienced the ebb and flow of both desirable and unwanted e-mail accumulation, you will develop some criteria for your own format. The low budget approach is to build your list slowly by learning what works with your early subscribers. You or a member of your staff must pay close attention to the management of the list in the early stages to avoid slowing the traffic you are trying to build. Here are some of the speed bumps you're likely to encounter:
The FLAMER. Let us assume you have got your plan together, decided on your theme, and know who you want to attract. You know better than to send an e-mail broadcast to strangers announcing your new service. You invite subscribers with an announcement on your Website. Your initial mailings will go out to those visitors who express interest and to potential subscribers you have identified from your participation in other groups, from your own customer lists or members of associations you sponsor or belong to. No matter how "flameproof" you think you are, you may still hit a recipient who takes umbrage at your message or its "commercial" content. Flamers frequently express their dudgeon in vile and colorful language (or copious lines of nonsense).
The BOUNCER. The most frequent cause of bounced messages is the subscriber who wants to "unsubscribe" and has not managed to follow directions. Even though most autoresponders display unsubscribe instructions with each message you send, some readers will not interpret the instructions correctly. Frustration can lead to anger and expressed hosility (see the FLAMER). Recognize that some bounced messages are the result of changed addresses, improperly configured software or typographical errors you or the subscriber introduced. Bounced messages should be routinely reviewed to determine the cause of the rejection by the autoresponder.
The PROMOTER. If you have entered the mailing list derby by participating in other discussion lists, as I have, then discreetly posting a note about your own fledgling list, you know the value and the peril of this form of self- promotion. It's a quick way to get booted off someone else's list. If you do not intend to tightly monitor your own list, you may end up obligingly distributing the most blatent forms of commercial messages to "your" prospects.
Here are some of the techniques that will help you stay on track while your list is building.
1. Keep your list current. This means purging it of incorrect addresses before each new mailing. Removing addresses of the failed "unsubscribe" requests will help head off the smoldering potential Flamer.
2. Encourage feedback. If you receive negative comments - and you will - turn it into an opportunity to pose questions to your subscribers that will bring them into collaboration with you.
3. Make sure you fully understand the operation of your server software (whether it is maintained by you or your ISP). My own experiments with new e-mail software resulted in an embarassing overload of garbled text in my subscribers' mailboxes or accidently including everyone's address. A good practice is to send a few test messages to friendly - and tolerant-associates before treating your whole mailing list to your innovations.
4. To be sure that the content you send to your list has value for the reader, do some test marketing among your initial subscribers. Better, maintain a core list of friendly critics to experiment with. Don't commit yourself to a format before you have explored the interest and tolerance level of your test group.
Here are some of the content formats you can try:
1. Announcement - This includes newsletters, periodic bulletins, and other one-way communications that you prepare and deliver on a regular schedule. You can incorporate classified advertising or promotions of other vendors as part of your content. You can invite contributions by outside contributors or exchange your own writings with editors of other publications.
2. Discussion - In this format you encourage your readers to contribute ideas, information, opinion, business leads and news items. You can use this format to conduct formal or informal surveys as well. The discussion format is a good way to get feedback about products or services you offer.
3. Digest - You combine regular mailings with an archive server where readers can obtain more detailed information from your server, or outside sources, by request sent in the form of an e-mail message to an address you specify. This is a good way to offer tech support to your customers.
4. User directed. - Using cutting edge technology, the so-called "third generation" or "smart sites" on the Web are developing automated "paging" tools that permit visitors to configure an autoresponder to send them e-mail only on those subjects that they have pre- selected. This form of mailing list works best with highly interactive Websites.
To get you started, I have assembled a bibliography of mailing list sources and examples for you to explore at: "Mailing-List" Target="_BLANK">http://www.referrals.com/articles/">Mailing-List Resources.
In the final article in this series, I will discuss the software options available for maintaining your mailing list.
Carl Kline, MBA
About the Author
For additional information on the subject of Cyber-Dollars: A collection of papers, articles, reports, and links to Internet resources related to Network Payment Mechanisms and Digital Cash. http://www.wsdinc.com/pgs_www/w7199.shtml
A collection of proposed network payment and/or digital cash systems. http://ganges.cs.tcd.ie/mepeirce/Project/proposed.html
Mr. Kline runs the following websites: referrals.com, http://www.4expertise.com and http://www.theventure.com
kline@referrals.com
http://www.referrals.com
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