Building Quality Lists

    "51% of all marketers say that their list is only slowly growing." -According to a 9/2010 Marketing Sherpa Survey

     Why is exclusivity essential?

      If you spent years painstakingly nurturing a highly targeted, 110% response based opt in list, do you think you would share it with just anyone? Probably not. Quality email marketers know that a good list will grow slowly. It takes time to find the members who really want to hear what you have to say. And those members  should be treated as the highly valuable tribe members they are- with anticipated, exclusively relevant, timely email content.

      Uniqueness

      The more unique and targeted the list members are, the more unique the and targeted your content should be. Maintain your list engagement by shipping that uniqueness that your brand can offer- every time.

      Be Humble.

      Be humble in your voice and deliver only what they signed up for- use stories, videos, reports

      Favor quality over quantity in your communications, but always ship on time.

      People change. 

      Why have a preference center? Because peoples wants/needs change over time.

      Most lists loose 1/3 per year to list churn!

            Make sure your offers are relevant to your brand:

• Special reports
• Whitepapers

      You must think and act differently than the competition- use brand personality, expertise

       Maintain quality list relationships by using:          

• Preference centers
• Opt down or pause mailings
• Easy unsubscribes (47% of users will click spam instead of unsubscribe because its easier/faster)
• Try a unsubscribe confirmation page
• Request reasons on unsubscribe confirmation page
• 2 click unsubscribe as standard

·         Dependable, predictable sends- no “batch and blast”

·         **Set subscriber expectations, tell them:

• What you will send
• When/how you will send
• Spell out benefits
• Link to privacy policy
• Don’t break promises

·

·         **Ask for new subscribers in your:

• Blogs
•  Mobile
• Social
• Transactional email
• Webinars
• Websites
• Customer service
• Tradeshows

·         QR Codes- help build list subscribers- maybe use on t-shirts at conferences

·         Social Media- gain subscribers through:

• Simple updates/mentions
• Sharing buttons from relevant content
• Facebook custom forms on your fan page to sign up for email

·         Transactional emails - add email sign ups to footers

·         How to motivate your subscribers to sign up:

•  1^st notice on breaking news
• Sweepstakes and coupons 
• Premium access to features

Re-Engagement Strategies

• Send them a targeted offer or reason to re-engage with you 
•   If they click yes, send them to their own preference center
• Consider sorting your list segments as: #1=most active; #2=mid active; #3=least active