"Where do I get my email lists?" A popular cry
from nearly all of our customers. You have
decided embark on an email campaign, but you
need targeted addresses to contact. What do you do?
Do not buy lists? You perhaps have seen these?
You know the ones, "Buy 10 million addresses
for only $149". Using these lists will only have
you labeled as a Spammer. These addresses are
suspect, in fact, over 70% are bogus or duplicated,
and the rest certainly have not asked to receive
"your" message. Furthermore, software or ISP's
are not made to handle the load of that many
email address, much less the "in error" returns?
You could "rent" email lists from submission
services, but these can be costly, usually 20 to
30 cents per email.
What do you do? Use these next 8 ideas to get
the ideas flowing and build your own targeted list.
Emails of customers who want to receive your
message; potential customers that you can
communicate with over and over.
1. Your Website - ask people to signup for your
newsletter, guest book, ezine, contest. Don't
forget to put this on every page. A free tool
like EzlistZ http://www.ezlistz.com can make
this easy for you.
2. Direct Mail - Send out postcards to potential clients.
On these ask people to not only visit your site, but
sign up to receive valuable information, products
etc. Companies like Web Card can help you with this.
http://www.web-cards.com
3. Telemarketing - Use telemarketing agents to
contact your potential customers. Have them
ask for email addresses. Give them a reason to
do so. Perhaps a contest, coupons, free trial,
information.
4. Use Brokers - Ask brokers or other sites with
heavy traffic to post a signup for your information
or service. Most will charge between 10 - 15 cents
per email, but these are yours to keep.
5. Door-to-Door - One of our tourism customers
found this quite effective - they hired students
to go door to door asking for email addresses in
return for information that they might be
interested in.
6. Online Contest - Online contests are often a very
effective way of getting email addresses. Make
the email address a requirement of entry. There
are a number of companies that will manage all
aspects of your online contest. One is Raffle
http://www.raffle.ca/
7. Bricks and Mortar - For those of you with
physical stores, don't forget to ask for email
addresses at every turn. Ask at checkout, send
surveys, run contests etc.
8. Your Communication Material - Don't just
put your URL on your communications. Ask
people to go to your site and signup. Put this
on business cards, order forms, survey forms and
signature files.
There are many more techniques that will help
you build your lists; hopefully these will get
your ideas flowing. Although building a qualified list
will take time, in the end this is the best, most
cost effective and profitable route to take.
About the Author
Karen Fegarty is with MailWorkZ. MailWorkZ,
http://www.mailworkz.com is a leading producer
of emarketing products and tools. Karen can
be reached at mailto:karen@mailworkz.com