Originally published on Email Uplers on 10/23/24
While email list building is frequently discussed, few tackle the subject with a positive perspective. Due to various malpractices associated with list building and management, the conversation often revolves around what not to do.
However, that’s only half the story. Email list building, growth, and management are vital elements of your email marketing strategy and deserve more than just a focus on the negative.
We caught up with Tom Wozniak, a highly respected expert in email marketing who has a strong following within the email community, to grab the whole ball of wax. Over to Tom!
For someone just starting with email marketing without any subscribers, isn’t building the list both a temptation and a necessity? How should one navigate the spectrum of choice? How crucial is stake analysis at this point?
Tom: Every new email marketer starts from zero with their list. So, this is a common challenge. Building an email list from the ground up takes time. You start with the basics, by giving visitors to your website, app, etc., the opportunity to subscribe to your list. Make the signup prominent and as easy as possible. Once you are delivering relevant and valuable content to your slowly growing list (this is a must if you’re serious about building a long-term email marketing program), then you can look at ways to kickstart your list signups. Consider partnering with other list owners who reach a similar audience. Either advertise in their newsletters or other email content or discuss them doing a dedicated send promoting your content. This can be a great way to get your content in front of a larger audience and drive new signups.
It’s said that the best acquisition sources are close to a brand’s shopping or customer service activities. But these touchpoints might also add one-time buyers to the list. What’s the value trade-off here?
Tom: Every long-term customer starts as a one-time buyer. Some tail off and may never buy again for a variety of reasons, but others become part of your core long-term customer base. Giving every new buyer the opportunity to become a long-term customer is a logical part of your sales process. Sometimes your email program is what will convince a one-timer buyer to make that second purchase. You can always remove non-responders from your mailing lists at a point in the future, but leverage the opportunity to use email content to build relationships with your new buyers if you want to optimize your long-term customer base.
It’s generally believed that short and simple signup forms work better. However, longer forms, while getting fewer signups, usually bring in more qualified leads. What does a balanced approach look like?
Tom: Start by asking yourself what information you really need from a new signup. Before data privacy became a significant concern for consumers and government agencies, companies could argue that collecting more data was always better. You never know when some innocuous data point could become valuable in your audience targeting efforts down the road. So, many companies erred on the side of collecting more data than was necessary. However, with the emergence of data privacy laws across many states, companies are becoming much more judicious in their data collection practices. So, consider what data points you need to effectively deliver relevant email content to your subscriber list. This will lead naturally to a more streamlined approach to creating forms and gathering data from your new signups.
How can brands with offline operations use them to collect email addresses?
Tom: Most brick-and-mortar retailers try to collect email addresses from customers during the checkout process. But, the key is to offer some value in return for the information. Creating a rewards program or customer club is one way to incentivize customers to sign up and provide an email address, in order to receive special offers or other member benefits through email. Just make sure you are providing a good reason for them to provide an email and clearly spell out what kinds of information you will be sending them.
Email marketers often don’t control where the signup form appears on the website. Do you have any tips on how they can convince the web team to involve them in this decision since email marketers are ultimately responsible for list growth?
Tom: Having silos in a company can create these types of situations, where a website team may feel no incentive to help the email team build their subscriber list by making the signup prominent and simple on the site. One way to head this off is to remind the web team that part of the email program involves driving recipients back to the site to engage in content or make purchases. That should directly impact the web team’s goals. Make it clear that working together benefits both teams.
Read the rest at Email Uplers.
Tom Wozniak heads up Marketing and Communications as the COO for OPTIZMO Technologies.