Executive Summary: Leverage Opt-in Tactics to Grow Your Email List the Right Way.
The lesson couldn’t be clearer, or more common sense. Yet, many marketers feel they need to lead with the close. As Seth Godin says in the landmark book Permission Marketing, “ Don’t propose marriage on the first date.” So, goes the metaphor, why do you think someone you just met will want to buy what you’re selling?
A similar theme was uncovered when ExactTarget , Ball State and the Email Marketers Club collaborated for the 2009 Email List Growth Study. The study was based on a detailed survey of U.S. and international email marketers and the tactics they found effective in 2008 and the opt-in list growth methods they planned to use in 2009. As many publications like marketingcharts.com and directmag.com can attest, many marketers are focusing on tactics that other marketers say aren’t worth the time.
As Ken Magill boiled it down in his newsletter yesterday: “Thirty two percent of marketers either rarely or never track the performance of their e-mail names by source...The troublesome statistic means almost a third of e-mail marketers could be throwing money away on bad sources of e-mail names. Moreover, bad list sources can lead to garbage addresses being introduced into marketers’ house files resulting in deliverability problems.”
In my own words, and as reported by marketers around the globe, the best way to grow your list often isn’t the fastest. Rather, it is subscriber by subscriber in a conversation that is initiated by the subscriber in the first place. Some might call this true opt-in. We call this Subscribers Rule! If you aren’t familiar, head on over to subscribersrule.com. It is more than a philosophy, it is a directive that marketers in 2009 need to follow to be successful. It is the recognition (in some cases resignation) that the subscriber is in control. With all of the din created by 20,467 marketing messages a week, consumers can’t take it all in.
Subscribers rule, a concept in list growth and profiling based on subscriber intent and initiation, says it all. Funny thing is, many marketers still won’t believe this study. They’ll continue to focus on quantity rather than quality of names. To them I say, please read what 351 other marketers say the best way is to grow your email list.
The lesson couldn’t be clearer, or more common sense. Yet, many marketers feel they need to lead with the close. As Seth Godin says in the landmark book Permission Marketing, “ Don’t propose marriage on the first date.” So, goes the metaphor, why do you think someone you just met will want to buy what you’re selling?
A similar theme was uncovered when ExactTarget , Ball State and the Email Marketers Club collaborated for the 2009 Email List Growth Study. The study was based on a detailed survey of U.S. and international email marketers and the tactics they found effective in 2008 and the opt-in list growth methods they planned to use in 2009. As many publications like marketingcharts.com and directmag.com can attest, many marketers are focusing on tactics that other marketers say aren’t worth the time.
As Ken Magill boiled it down in his newsletter yesterday: “Thirty two percent of marketers either rarely or never track the performance of their e-mail names by source...The troublesome statistic means almost a third of e-mail marketers could be throwing money away on bad sources of e-mail names. Moreover, bad list sources can lead to garbage addresses being introduced into marketers’ house files resulting in deliverability problems.”
In my own words, and as reported by marketers around the globe, the best way to grow your list often isn’t the fastest. Rather, it is subscriber by subscriber in a conversation that is initiated by the subscriber in the first place. Some might call this true opt-in. We call this Subscribers Rule! If you aren’t familiar, head on over to subscribersrule.com. It is more than a philosophy, it is a directive that marketers in 2009 need to follow to be successful. It is the recognition (in some cases resignation) that the subscriber is in control. With all of the din created by 20,467 marketing messages a week, consumers can’t take it all in.
Subscribers rule, a concept in list growth and profiling based on subscriber intent and initiation, says it all. Funny thing is, many marketers still won’t believe this study. They’ll continue to focus on quantity rather than quality of names. To them I say, please read what 351 other marketers say the best way is to grow your email list.
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