More and more businesspeople are beginning to realize they need to get serious about building their permission-based email lists and taking advantage of the opportunities provided by online marketing. They may have been doing email marketing for years with a haphazard, less than focused attitude, but times have changed…and so must they. Smart business owners are learning that, if they get serious about building their lists, they can bring in more business. It really works!
Building your list in tough economic times is more important than ever. Your list is a pre-qualified target audience. They know you and your products and services. Chances are they have already bought from you pharmaceutical email lists in the past. They are an easier sell and a great source of referrals. That’s why email marketing is the most effective tool in your marketing mix. For fractions of a penny per person, you can stay in touch with your best customers and nurture your relationship with them. When they are ready to buy….they will think of you first!
Permission is Not Optional
Email marketing is different from other forms of direct marketing. Because of today’s anti-spam laws, you can no longer send random marketing emails to anyone and everyone you have an address for. And only permission-based emails make it past the spam filters and into your customer’s inbox. The rest go to a spam folder and most likely never get opened. You need to ask before you add someone to your email list.
Unsolicited email can also hurt your brand, your marketing campaign, and your reputation. Consider how you feel every time you open your email account and see unsolicited emails from some pharmaceutical company trying to sell the “bigger is better” drugs, or from some non-profit organization wanting donations….or anyone trying to sell you something you did not ask for. You can avoid creating that same negative impression by ensuring that you are using only permission-based email addresses. The best way to do this is to provide a two-stage opt-in process that requires confirmation before the address goes into your database.
Act Quickly, But Don’t Over Do It
If someone shares his or her email address with you, that person is now expecting to get something from you. Don’t wait several weeks or months to make contact with them. He or she won’t remember you and will delete your email or unsubscribe immediately. Send a welcome email and a copy of your most recent newsletter while the connection is still fresh on their mind.
Sending too many emails too often is also a no-no. People don’t want to be bombarded with information about your business, no matter how good it might be. Anything more than once a week could generate a high number of spam complaints and get you on an ISP’s bad side. Your emails can end up out in space and never even reach the customer’s spam folder.
Clean and Analyze Your Mailing Lists
One great thing about email marketing is that you can monitor the results much more carefully than with old fashioned direct mailing. You can see how many emails were sent, how many were opened, who opened them, who forwarded the email to friends, who used the links in the email to click on your web site, and you can see who blocked you or opted out from receiving future emails. The technology is wonderful. Knowing what to do with it is another story.
You can’t just keep adding to the list without ever cleaning it up. Growing your list is important, but don’t do it at the expense of quality. A large list may look impressive, but having a list of quality names should be your priority.
Using a “dirty” list with too many unsolicited, incorrect, out-of-date or duplicated addresses hurts your email campaign. The statistics will not be accurate and could give you a false sense of failure. By cleaning out bad addresses, you will be able to reduce the amount of undeliverable emails and it also helps you to spot problems.
Review your list on a regular basis and see who hasn’t opened or clicked for the last six months. Send them a special offer compelling them to re-connect with you. If that doesn’t work, you may want to consider another option, Broadcast Marketing . This new phone calling technology is a more personal and direct way to make contact with your customers.
