Forum Moderators: buckworks
What is the best way to use a list of 7.5K of previous customers e-mails to increase traffic / business to an established online shop.
The client has never used e-mail marketing before and I feel he has a customer base he is not using for promotion and marketing.
If we use this list of previous customers is there any dangers to the business - and is it better to use desktop software to manage / send out e-mails or use an online e-mail marketing company?
To start with, I'd use an email service to handle the additions and deletions and to create an html email (plain text works just as well in my opinion). Limit mailings to about one a month. Expect many addresses to bounce the first mailing or two.
$7,500.00 x $16,000.00 = $120,000,000.00
Each company involved can be separately fined, the company sending the email and the company who is selling stuff in the email.
$120,000,000.00 x 2 = $240,000,000.00
"The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 stated emails must contain:
* An opt-out feature that allows recipients to unsubscribe through an opt-out button or by replying to the message which is sent to a valid, monitored mailbox
* The physical address of the mailer
* A valid, non-deceptive subject line and header (routing) information
* A warning label if the email contains adult content"
A few tweaks were added in 2008. We comply with the law. Never get a complaint. Actually get a few customers who are unhappy they haven't received latest coupons.
There have been criminal cases against flagrant spammers, but never a FTC civil judgment
[en.wikipedia.org...]
a) mailing out: when you transfer a list like this into mailing programs like aweber they need to verify their participation to the list (by double opt-in) before you can actually use the list. This could raise some flags with your former customers. Check out if you find an ESP that doesn't have this requirement or get a selfhosted solution. Desktop-Software (like sending through your normal email program) is not advisable as you can run into trouble with your ISP for sending too many emails. It is also a burden to maintain and run the email campaign correctly (updating, deleting etc.)
b)You have to be sensible but targeted with your content. When they haven't heard from your client in years, the approach with free delivery or an other discount like described above is a good one.
Would be good to see your results some time later - good luck
I signed up last night for the free trial of MailChimp where I can send up to 500 customers emails for free - basically to trial it out with a smaller number of people to see if it is effective and also what the disadvantages are going to be in relation to increased sales.
As for a free offer, thanks for that idea - we already offer free worldwide delivery and I suppose the best thing to do is use the email to remind previous customers of this.
mailing out: when you transfer a list like this into mailing programs like aweber they need to verify their participation to the list (by double opt-in) before you can actually use the list.
I doubt any commerical email utility requires double opt in.
You can go that route if you want a much smaller list. I get annoyed with double opt-in when I'm signing up for something I want. Very few retailers require double opt-in these days. Nothing in Can-Spam requires it. Only requirement is some business relationship, like past orders or even just an inquiry, I believe.
Emailing isn't a sin as some imply. I cry over all the costly free shipping and product discounts we give out with our emails. A great deal for customers and real pain for our bottom line. I rather give a break to our good customers than hand it to Google for stupid click advertising.
Email is 1% as invasive as all the direct mail credit card offers I get (often daily) from Capital One, American Express and other silk stocking financial firms. (gawd knows I never opted in for those!) And opting out of email generally takes seconds. (and it almost always works even with blatant spam)
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One other thing: email advertising is far less productive than in the 1990s when getting email was a novelty. Spam is no longer the huge problem it was a few years ago. But customers are far less willing to give out their addresses and they change them often. I'd guess our list is 25% as productive per name as it once was.
Yes the business is UK based, however that does not stop marketing email under the European legislation - surely.
The recipients forget their participation with your company... and forget any permissions they may have provided to be marketed to. Sometimes even if you provide a permission-reminder in the actual email, they still over-look that and jump the gun on classifying your email as spam. If that is the case, they may incorrectly use spam as a reason when they opt-out of the list. If you are using an list-manager service, a high rate of spam-reports may result in having to explain some things to the service.
Over what span of time have those addresses been collected? Weeks, months, or years?
Good point, the list goes back years. I plan to start with people who made multiple / repeated purchases so they will probably remember the relationship. However it is correct that some will have forgotten, some will have changed their email address, some probably will have died.
I have worded the message reminding them that they were/are customers of the company, that we still do free delivery worldwide and finanally offer seasons greetings from the owner.
I hope this does not work well with the first 500 people involved as a trial we will then not continue with the rest of the list. Finally I have suggested we only email out 2 or a maximum of these 3 mails a year, and following on from earlier suggestions with a bargain offer/special deal etc.
In my days of running a mailing list most people wanted to receive them but there were a few oddities such as the customer, currently using our service, who swore blind that he had never heard of us and the chap who repeatedly asked to be removed but sent the requests from a different address and refused to tell us the address that we were sending to.
The time consuming problems were the things like AOL suddenly refusing to accept any messages for their customers.
