Email Marketing – Don’t burn your list!
In talking to my peers lately I've noticed a lack in contact cultivation regarding email marketing. Blasting a list of contacts with a message is great, way to go, but did you think about tapping that resource for more data? Are you aware of list deterioration? How are you generating more names, emails, contact info, etc?
Without using methods that are proactively farming prospects and capturing new lead data lists have a limited life span. How many times can you hit a list before they unsubscribe?
There are simple methods to capturing leads and growing lists. Combine them with a nurturing of the lists you already have and you'll be in the email business for a long time. I'll mention a few to get you started and you can ask me about the rest.
- List Acquisition - There are a few ways to do this. Buy it, channel it or harvest it.
a. Buying a list is fairly easy to do, however, it's most definitely you're worst source for list acquisition. Most list vendors don't append their data to the fullest extent. Fields are missing, names are improperly formatted, email addresses no longer are functional and the like. In short, great way to start, bad way to sustain.
b. Channeling leads is better and couples with harvesting in the long run. An easy way to channel leads is to create a landing page on your website that offers visitors a reason to leave you with information and create fields that will capture that data for you. Then set up a link on a reciprocal website or a Pay-per-click advertisement that will channel those viewers to that page. In turn you'll gather data, some will be solely for the offer you proposed, some will be legit. This method is better than a list purchase, but not as clean as harvesting as you still have users that only care about the offer on the landing page. Tailoring the offer will better qualify your leads, but it will also trim down the amount of leads that you receive.
c. Harvesting leads is by far the most efficient and cleanest way to capture leads and supplement your existing database of contacts. Harvesting isn't a short term fill up. It does require time and effort. In return you will gain a long term interest and participation in your brand and company. Harvesting is done by the commonly used contact form on your website. I know...this seems lame right? Hold on, it gets better.
Using this method combined with the other two you can create a filtering system that will allow you to not only segregate the leads you capture, but it gives you a bigger glove in which to catch the leads with.
Buy the leads, email them, capture data on a landing page.
Buy the advertising, capture data, email them, capture data on a landing page.
Set up the forms on the website for data capture, capture more data through out the website in different forms. (different forms filter out to different fields of data.)
Do you see where this is going?
In essence your straining out the chaff and harvesting the wheat. These three methods all have their downfalls, but if you couple them together and properly capture the data you can develop a data filtering system that allows you to populate your final customer/lead database with quality.
An artist is a master of many brushes, a painter just gets the job done.
Cheers,
Rory
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