Improving the performance of your email list starts with having a deep understanding of the value of the list, and what it can do for you and your internet marketing efforts. To get a great return on investment (ROI), you need to maximize your resources, and one of your greatest resources is likely to be your email list and your email address database.
Unfortunately, many of the recipients on your email marketing list are going to be barraged with emails, day in and day out, making them special offers or delivering information that is supposedly helpful. People are growing increasingly skeptical about email marketing, although it does continue to be a highly effective internet marketing strategy, when used properly. Those email marketers who are not carefully following the best practices are going to find themselves accused of spamming, even when they are using perfectly legitimate email addresses and techniques. The whole idea of spam is becoming a gray area, and is not only limited to bogus offers or poached email addresses, so being careful about what you send is critical. The last thing that you need, as an email marketer, is to be sent to the spam folder. Once this starts happening, you can essentially kiss your entire campaign goodbye and consider how best to completely start over because it is extremely difficult to recover from this type of online assault.
Relationship Respect
As with any relationship, true respect is a cornerstone and is one of the main things that can make or break the relationship. Email marketers need to truly respect the relationships that they build with their recipients, if they want their email lists and email address database to stay strong and vital. All businesses rely on the relationship with the customer to survive, and email marketing is certainly no different. This relationship is developed and cultivated through clear expectations and good communication, without these things in place, then the relationship will go nowhere, and quickly. Building respect with your email list means that you are going to automatically get more interest, a higher open rate, and more conversions, because your recipients will feel respected and valued. All relationships must be a two-way street, and email marketing is definitely consistent with this—your promises need to be clear and they need to meet the expectations of the recipient, or else they will not open your emails, or worse, unsubscribe from your email list. This takes us to the next important point about making sure that you value your email list and email address database.
Expectations Matter, Must Meet Them
When you make a promise to the members of your email address database, you must make sure that you deliver. You are setting up certain expectations when you convince someone to use your bulk email opt in and subscribe to your email list. If you fail to deliver what you promised, you will find that the subscribers tend to leave, often in droves. Delivering what you promised is a fast way to get more recognition for your brand and make sure that your customers are happy campers and that they will want to stick around and find out more about your company, hopefully remaining as loyal customers for a long time. At the time of the signup on your bulk email opt in form, potential subscribers should be informed about exactly what they are signing up for, exactly how to do it efficiently and correctly, exactly what they can expect to receive as a result of signing up to be a part of your email list, how often they can expect to be contacted (and in what manner), that you will never sell or rent or trade their email and that it is perfectly safe in your hands, and why they are valuable to your company. It is important that you come across as sincere and legitimate, because otherwise, people just won’t take you seriously and won’t believe that you are there to deliver on your promises. Every time someone moves on from your bulk email opt in, it is a potential lead that is lost to you.
When you include an option for the subscriber to set their own preferences, in terms of how frequently they would like to be contacted or for what reasons, you will have demonstrated that you respect their membership on your email list and they will definitely take notice. Some people may be perfectly fine with getting emails on a daily basis, others may prefer far less frequent contact. When you can personalize and tailor the connections that you make with the members of your email address database, you will definitely be keeping them around longer. Having an option to temporarily put their membership on hold is also a great option, some people want to stop email on vacation or during times when they feel busier, yet they want to start back up shortly and do not want to completely unsubscribe. When you have a “hold” option, you can keep that subscriber on your list as a valuable member, yet still meet their needs on a personal level.
Building a quality email list takes time, and you definitely have to commit to the process in order for it to work properly. Quality email lists help to build your brand recognition and customer base, and allow you to consistently communicate with your target audience in an effective manner. When you come to realize that the members of your email address database are extremely valuable assets for your business, you will be able to use your email list to show them exactly how much they are appreciated by offering incentives and promotions that may not be readily available to the general public. People like to feel special, and using your email marketing list to help your customers feel more special is going to be important for improving your overall ROI and important for having a successful email marketing campaign that helps you make money online.