Archive for January, 2009
Protect your lists!
We all know how costly and time-consuming it can be to build your email lists.
If collecting organically, getting the balance of collecting commercially viable data without adding a huge barrier can be tricky (one for a blog topic in its own right).
Buying in data can seem like the easy way out, but there is a considerable risk of bringing in poor quality data that can negatively affect overall results and the deliverability of your campaigns as a whole. It can be a bit of a minefield but by using the right suppliers and data collection techniques you can get it right.
What do you do as an organisation to protect the quality and useful life your list? Once you have built a good list do you look after it? It’s easy to think of a list as a resource that is there to be tapped into when required. It is often overused or conversely, neglected. To maintain the life of a responsive list you need to use it consistently and use it well or 6 months later you will be asking yourself why your results are declining and you will be looking to bolster your list again
This probably sounds familiar to you. I know many of my clients experience these problems. They put all their time and effort into obtaining new data but then 6 months later find that despite their hard work the list has become unresponsive.
How can you prevent this?
There are some simple steps you can take to keep your list responsive and reduce the impact of list churn
Keep subscribers active and engaged. Empower them to distribute your content
- Manage expectations from point of signup (What will they receive? When?).
- Welcome them immediately to ‘start the conversation’ and use this message for initial ‘housekeeping’ such as add to safe senders.
- Contact them consistently as per the initial expectations. If you said it would be a monthly communication make sure you deliver (where possible without sending poor / irrelevant content).
- Your subscribers are likely to have access to many contacts working in the same field or interested in the same topics and they will know far more about their colleagues/friends than you could possibly know. Utilise this by providing opportunities to send to a friend and sign up to your services (perhaps at a discounted ‘friends referral rate’)
Reach out to inactive subscribers
- Ask them if they are still interested? If they are not perhaps you can cross promote another communication / product. Failing that, they unsubscribe but at least they leave with a good perception of your brand – perhaps you can cross promote another service on the unsub page?
- Forcing people to stay on your list will lead to ‘emotional unsubscribers’ – not good for your results. Don’t make it difficult for recipients to unsubscribe or change their preferences.
- Allow them to change their email address.
- Consider offering ‘breaks’… perhaps they are going away for a while. Allow them to suspend their email for x weeks / months to give them added confidence in your email marketing ethics whilst your competitors are seen as spammers!
- Make use of Adestra MessageFocus ‘recurring campaigns’ to contact inactive contacts with a gentle reminder that you are still there “We miss you!”
Hopefully these pointers will help, feel free to comment and let us know your thoughts and experiences.
Rob Hunter
Client Strategy Consultant
Protect your lists!
We all know how costly and time-consuming it can be to build your email lists.
If collecting organically, getting the balance of collecting commercially viable data without adding a huge barrier can be tricky (one for a blog topic in its own right).
Buying in data can seem like the easy way out, but there is a considerable risk of bringing in poor quality data that can negatively affect overall results and the deliverability of your campaigns as a whole. It can be a bit of a minefield but by using the right suppliers and data collection techniques you can get it right.
What do you do as an organisation to protect the quality and useful life your list? Once you have built a good list do you look after it? It’s easy to think of a list as a resource that is there to be tapped into when required. It is often overused or conversely, neglected. To maintain the life of a responsive list you need to use it consistently and use it well or 6 months later you will be asking yourself why your results are declining and you will be looking to bolster your list again
This probably sounds familiar to you. I know many of my clients experience these problems. They put all their time and effort into obtaining new data but then 6 months later find that despite their hard work the list has become unresponsive.
How can you prevent this?
There are some simple steps you can take to keep your list responsive and reduce the impact of list churn
Keep subscribers active and engaged. Empower them to distribute your content
- Manage expectations from point of signup (What will they receive? When?).
- Welcome them immediately to ‘start the conversation’ and use this message for initial ‘housekeeping’ such as add to safe senders.
- Contact them consistently as per the initial expectations. If you said it would be a monthly communication make sure you deliver (where possible without sending poor / irrelevant content).
- Your subscribers are likely to have access to many contacts working in the same field or interested in the same topics and they will know far more about their colleagues/friends than you could possibly know. Utilise this by providing opportunities to send to a friend and sign up to your services (perhaps at a discounted ‘friends referral rate’)
Reach out to inactive subscribers
- Ask them if they are still interested? If they are not perhaps you can cross promote another communication / product. Failing that, they unsubscribe but at least they leave with a good perception of your brand – perhaps you can cross promote another service on the unsub page?
- Forcing people to stay on your list will lead to ‘emotional unsubscribers’ – not good for your results. Don’t make it difficult for recipients to unsubscribe or change their preferences.
- Allow them to change their email address.
- Consider offering ‘breaks’… perhaps they are going away for a while. Allow them to suspend their email for x weeks / months to give them added confidence in your email marketing ethics whilst your competitors are seen as spammers!
- Make use of Adestra MessageFocus ‘recurring campaigns’ to contact inactive contacts with a gentle reminder that you are still there “We miss you!”
Hopefully these pointers will help, feel free to comment and let us know your thoughts and experiences.
Rob Hunter
Client Strategy Consultant