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June 20, 2007
Newsletter from Bill Stocking and Websiterevamp What About Your E-mail Strategy? Last year I wrote about the three legs of Internet branding and a good e-mail strategy was deemed to be of similar, if not greater, importance than a website. Just because e-mail doesn't cost $.41 a shot to send, don't think for a moment that the total process is a cheap slam-dunk. Pull vs Push Websites are "pull" marketing devices - like flowers and bumblebees. They are passive. It's easy to just let it sit there and six months later declare, "I guess that a website isn't going to work for me." Websites are much easier than e-mail lists. That's why everyone has a website but few have a decent e-mail strategy. E-mail promotion is a "push" process not unlike "snail mail" advertising except that the later has far fewer restrictions. While e-mail marketing requires on-going commitment it has the advantage of providing instantaneous feedback. There is an immediate "Hurrah" or "Ouch" when you send out a mailing - not always a good thing for the ego. An effective e-mail strategy can generate more prospects and customers than a website if you can get over the initial stumbling block: procuring a list of people who WANT to receive your mailings. Building the E-mail List Things not to do Opt-out is OUT. A few years ago, (up to about 2005), we could get away with sending email to just about any list of e-mail addresses as long as we used the opt-out proviso: - "If you wish to leave our mailing list, click here." Or,
- "This is a one-time mailing, if you wish to continue receiving our . . . then click here to subscribe."
Today, 2007, either tactic will be considered spamming and the wrath of the receivers of your mailing will be upon you like a swarm of angry hornets! E-mail group members - NOT. If you are in business you are probably a member of one or more professional trade groups or associations. Whether that group is 30 people or 1,000, if you've never met or spoken to 98% of the members you shouldn't even think of bulk e-mailing that group. Being a member of a tightly knit 15 person group might give you the right to e-mail your newsletter to that group, but asking permission is always best practice, even with people you'd consider "associates" or close acquaintances. Gathering addresses - doing it right Double Opt-In is IN. The big thing about double opt-in is that subscribers sign up for your list and then confirm their subscription by taking a second step, usually clicking on a link in a follow-up e-mail from the list owner. Why Double Opt-In is important: If the subscriber forgets that he or she signed up for your list and reports you as a "spammer" you might have to prove that they gave you permission to e-mail them. If you can't, you could have your web hosting terminated, domain name trashed and personal reputation tarnished. The website route. The most obvious way to collect e-mail addresses is to have a sign-up form on your website. This is not likely to garner many addresses unless you provide some kind of incentive. (More about incentives in a later issue.) The networking route. How to approach a prospective subscriber at a meeting: "Jane" (as you are reading her badge) ". . . glad you mentioned that, I publish a newsletter that should be of interest to you. If you'll give me one of your cards and write 'newsletter' on the back I'll put you on our list. By the way, you'll receive a confirmation notice and you'll need to click on. . ." This is the right way to collect addresses through networking. There are dozens of ways to collect e-mail addresses. We could write another ten pages and still not cover all the methods of building an e-mail list. We'll cover more of this topic in future newsletters and on our website: http://www.websiterevamp.org Call me at 312-437-3777 if you have any questions about this newsletter or want to chat about your website. Have a great Summer, Bill Stocking William R Stocking CMC Earlier newsletters: http://www.websiterevamp.org/the_news/internet_e-mail_newsletters.shtml
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