Maximizing your email contact list

Creating an email contact list is one of the most crucial marketing actions a new business can take.  An email contact list gives the business direct and consistent contact with the client/customer group and enables messages to acted upon, queried and responded to in real time.

Email marketing has emerged as more than a legitimate method of reaching a targeted audience.  A great feature of email marketing is that it is largely permission based, which means that the persons to whom you will send information, are open to receiving same.

The following are some tips to maintaining your email contact list:

-          Keep your list current – People change their email addresses for different reasons, or maybe in sending your message, you get a letter wrong or misplace a character and that results in the message either getting bounced or not sent at all.  Track the number of bounces and undelivered emails to see who isn’t receiving the messages.  Make contact with them to reconfirm email addresses.

-          Send an introductory message; immediately – Once you receive a contact’s email address, send an introductory message immediately.  It does two things – reconfirms your conversation with the client which led up to receipt of his email address; and establishes recall once future messages are sent.  This is also a great way to build a relationship with your clients.

-          Make your messages ‘user-friendly’ – Whether it’s formatting and layout or mobile versus desktop, ensure that your messages are user friendly.  Video, in particular and creatively designed graphics tend to grab a lot of attention, but there are those customers who just want to get the message.  Use bullet points to highlight the main points and be as clear as possible with your subject line.  There is nothing more annoying than opening the email and it has nothing to do with what was highlighted in the subject line.

-          Solicit customer feedback – Because you are in contact with your customers, this is an excellent way to solicit their feedback.  Find out what they want to hear from you, how they feel about your products or services and what improvements they would like to see.  And don’t just get the feedback, implement some of the ideas; it will allow your customers to feel like they are part of the business.

-          Don’t use a ‘one-size-fits-all’ message – Although your customers generally have some similarities, all your customers are different and get different benefits from your products and services.  Your job is to identify, which customers can receive generic messages, versus those who needs specific messages.