The top 5 DONT’S in email marketing acquisition

Trying to get new email addresses does not have to be Greek, but the art of acquisition has to be learned nonetheless. Acquiring quality opt-in addresses is key to any email marketing campaign. It enables email marketers to build lists of recipients to whom their message is of value, thus increasing the response rate. Also, it helps email marketers to avoid being labeled “spammers”. Opt in email marketing means that readers subscribe to a newsletter cognitively, while Opt out simply means that readers receive a newsletter to which they’ve never voluntarily opted in to the in the first place, but are given the option to “opt out”, meaning to unsubscribe. Marketers who use the Opt Out method often suffer from misplaced self-estimation – they are convinced that their product or service is so good that people would be grateful to hear about it. The reality is, that on a scale of 1 to 10, the sender thinks his opt-out email scores a 9, the recipient thinks its closer to a 2, and the recipient’s ISP most likely places the value at just above 0. Basically, opt-in is offering friends strawberry tart at the dinner table and those who put their hand up get it, like it and might even want more. Opt-out is picking out friends on the basis that they eat food and then forcing them to eat strawberry tart.

So what is best practice for email acquisition?

Firstly, it is important to have a working knowledge of international spam laws. Spamming can be equaled with theft as if someone receives email that they did not sign up for, their email address has effectively been stolen. Complaints from subscribers outside of the sender’s country are filtered through to local ISPs, because their “upstream” providers are obliged to comply with international laws. At the same time, adhering to local email marketing legislation is crucial as it helps maintain credibility. In some countries, it is illegal to send messages to recipients who did not give “affirmative consent”. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires that all recipients have “expressly consented to receive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuous request for such consent or at the recipient’s own initiative. Additionally, recipients are more likely to open and click-through if they have elected to receive your message. According to the Act, bulk email is considered SPAM when it contains content that may be offensive to the recipient, the email contains no unsubscribe option, the “From” address is not clearly visible or incorrect, the subject line is misleading or the recipient email addresses have been stolen from other websites or online services.

Secondly, email marketers should create their own, clean houselist. There is no point in creating an amazing email campaign and having no-one to send it to. The easiest and safest way to acquire new subscribers is to start building a database by creating a sign-up form and start pointing people to it. It also helps to offer an incentive, prize or loyalty points if customers refer friends. In this case, it is advisable to opt for a double opt-in (DOI) sign up process or at least a confirmed opt-in (COI). Double opt-in simply means that the referred friend will not automatically be subscribed to the newsletter, but first has to confirm his subscription via an activation email request. DOI minimizes bad addresses and malicious subscriptions and also helps to ensure that those referred friends do really want to receive your emails. DOI and COI help with deliverability and by applying these practices; email marketers pretty much avoid your email practices running afoul of an ISP. It is also a good idea to consider adding a link to a sign-up form in the email signature of everyone in the company, printed at the bottom of invoices, or posted to a company blog; and why not collect email addresses over the phone when clients call in?

Thirdly, the opt-in process needs to be optimized. More than 80% of participants favor doing business with organizations that use opt-in permission to send them email (Habeas, 2008). It is crucial to provide a clear link to the privacy policy in the newsletter sign-up form, and advisable to provide links to past newsletters or eflyers. Further optimization can be achieved through a thank-you page or pop-up when new users subscribe. It might be a good idea to use this thank-you page to welcome them, and tell them where to go next for the latest release or when to expect the first email, newsletter or flyer. If double opt in is applied to the sign up process, then this page can also provide new subscribers with the link on which to click to confirm their subscription. (It might also pay out to take new subscribers to a confirmed page where incentives such as a white paper, promotional code or gadgets are offered).

Top 5 DON’Ts when acquiring email addresses

1 – Don’t use an opt out process

Financial pressure can tantalize marketers to send bulk email to people who’ve never signed up for their newsletter to begin with; these emails are usually neither relevant nor valuable to the recipients. A bigger list doesn’t necessarily mean a better list. Problems caused by the opt-out process are not immediate or obvious but can have a long term negative affect on your brand and future deliverability. People who receive emails they have not voluntarily opted in to may not directly complain to the sender, but they’ll complain to their ISP or their social network. Twitter and Facebook are great platforms to which such complaints can be posted.

2 – Don’t purchase email lists

Sending unsolicited email messages is a big mistake. Purchased lists might have been gathered during market research, from financial institutions or even scraped from websites by automated crawlers. Purchased lists often result in many spam reports which damage your reputation both with ISPs and potential clients. Email campaigns are about ongoing relationships over more than one campaign, so it’s crucial to take the time to build a good list.

3 – Don’t neglect inactive addresses

Once a houselist has been built and the first few email marketing campaigns have been sent, the fun part starts. Tracking! Checking the reports of email sends helps marketers spot any recipients that haven’t purchased, opened or clicked on an email in a long time. What anyone considers a long time entirely depends on the nature of their business. However, it is important that lists are kept clean. Some of the older inactive addresses might lead to blocking or filtering by ISPs if not removed. Or worse, the sender lands up being labeled a “spammer” . A recent study by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group revealed that 22% of US Internet users consider messages they once requested but no longer want to be spam. So, either remove the inactive addresses from a list or concentrate on retention marketing. For instance, reactivate them by sending some special offers, surveys or messages specially targeted to that audience. Or, mail them less frequently and with different content. The key is to segment your database into inactive and active addresses and send them emails accordingly.

4 – Don’t expect too much

Be realistic about the type of list you have built. Email campaigns have to be tested and retested over and over again. Don’t expect to strike it rich instantly. Remember that your campaign is not just a major drive for sales, but it also helps cement your customers’ loyalty to your brand. Ask for advice from experts, listen to your peers, check out your competition. A very large but generic email list might only average a response rate of 0.3% while a highly targeted, customer segmented niche list might score more than 50%.

5 – Don’t keep your email campaign separate from your overall marketing strategy

In order to acquire email addresses and build your database and online community, consider integrating your email campaign into your overall marketing strategy. Make full use of alternative marketing channels such as media releases, articles, above and below the line campaigns, attendance of trade shows, competition or event sponsorship.

Conclusively, it helps to remember that it costs more to acquire a new customer than to cater to the ones you already have. In challenging economic times, keeping existing customers loyal and deepening their relationship with your brand is critical.

About GraphicMail

Quattro Internet Solutions (Ltd) t/a GraphicMail’s hosted email marketing solution is used by customers such as Motorola, SA Airlink, Europcar and Harvard University since 2002. It is available in eight languages and is represented by over 16 offices globally. Follow GraphicMail on Twitter, Facebook and their email marketing blog. Contact: Barbara Ulmi, GraphicMail Marketing Manager, barbara@graphicmail.com