Question Two: How do I build an email list?
Since you're conducting permission
email campaigns, this means you already have permission from
a list of subscribers in the first place. You now have to build your
in-house lists from whatever number of subscriber you have now. You
may have zero subscribers today, or you may have 10,000 or even 100,000
addresses; but, no matter where you are today, the only way to get
where you want to be is to start inviting customers to give you permission
at every touchpoint of contact you have with those customers or potential
customers.
Don't assume the only point of contact is the web. You may be interacting
with customers or prospects on the phone, at retail locations, in face-to-face
meetings, through direct mail or other means. No matter what the medium,
you always have an opportunity to invite someone to give you permission
to learn more about them. In fact, that's how permission questions
should be phrased: not as permission for you to solicit them with Orwellian-style
approaches, but as permission for you to learn more about their needs
in order to deepen the level of understanding with that customer or
prospect, subsequently communicating with them in a meaningful way.
To translate this into more practical terms, you can start building
an email list by putting a subscription form on your web site. Of course
that requires a bit of programming, which you may or may not be up
to, so there are other tools available such as the one my own company
will be offering soon called Zeop. The
Zeop web tool allows you to add a permission subscription form
to your web site without using any programming whatsoever. It allows
you to build an opt-in, 100 percent permission-based email list without
engaging in any programming on your part.
You may have many other opportunities to ask for permission from your
customers or prospects as well. You could ask for permission within
direct mail pieces or invoices or other billing methods you might be
sending your customer. You can ask for permission following a phone
order placed by your customer, or you might have your frontline salespeople
asking for permission during their face-to-face meetings. You may find
the best way to gain permission is to offer incentives in exchange
for customer permission. Give each subscriber some reason to grant
you permission beyond just the opportunity to be marketed in an interpersonal
way. Give them a report, a coupon, a free gift, or something of value
to them that relates to your or business or service, so they will not
only feel rewarded, they will also learn that you are the type of organization
that rewards their participation.
When you're building your permission email list,
be sure to document the IP address, subscriber email address, and subscription
date and time, when you accept each new subscription. This is to protect
yourself in case that person forgets they subscribe and then later
claims you are sending them unsolicited email.
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