Permission based Email Marketing Management

Here are some important things to consider:

Get permission
This seems like a simple step. But for some companies, doing this poorly or skipping this step altogether has resulted in major losses of business and customer trust.

Don’t let other businesses have access to our customers’ e-mail addresses
This step may seem obvious as well, but many businesses fail to see the trust broken by such practices.

Don’t bombard your customers with information
If your customers have opted to receive your special offers, limit contacting them to no more than two, maybe three times a month.

Make it easy to unsubscribe
These two steps not only reassure your customers’ trust, but reinforces your reputation as an honest, thoughtful and responsible business.

Display your privacy statement in a prominent spot
Don’t hide your privacy statement from customers, let them know what your practices are up front.

Build a House List
The first step in permission-based e-mail is building your e-mail list. Before you build the list, determine what info is needed from your customers. The information you collect can address their specific needs. The most basic of lists includes your customers’ name and e-mail address. But if you want to really narrow your target, dig deeper and find out such things as age, sex, location, household income, as well as their interests and hobbies. Once you gather that information, put it in a database.

Great ways to build your list

Phone calls
When your customer service reps contact your clients, create a script that asks customers for permission to collect information or send them something of value.

Invoices
Use invoices to advertise and cross-sell to customers. Your invoices can advertise a certain product or service that would appeal to that particular customer, and hopefully entice them to sign up for it online.

Clinics
Clinics and seminars are great places to gather sign ups. Use these opportunities to get customer permission to communicate with them further.

Order Confirmation
When an order is placed on your Web site, provide a checkbox that asks your customers if they want to receive more information. Additionally, when the order confirmation is e-mailed to customers, you can ask again if they would like to receive further info about products, services and other items.

Internet Advertising
Need a swift, cost-efficient way to build your list? Use Internet advertising. You can quickly build a list through lead generation programs, e-mail list rentals, banner ads, content integration, sweepstakes or newsletter sponsorships.

As with anything, practice restraint
We recommend contacting each customer no more than two, maybe three times in one month, excluding order confirmations, of course.

Here’s a list of types of e-mail to send your customers

  Company newsletters – send them monthly and only if it’s double opt-in
  Company sales offers – either monthly or in response to inventory
  Unique alerts – Specific information a customer requests

Determine Email Objectives
Before beginning an e-mail campaign, first develop your objectives and set goals to measure your success.

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