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Market Your Small
Business With E-Mail
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Article 8: Create Your Own Opt-In List
The very best mailing list is the one you compile
yourself from people who directly have told you
they want to hear from you again.
Many commercial e-mail list brokers claim they
will sell or rent you lists that perfectly match
your target market profile. But the truth is
that the only people you can be certain match
your ideal clients are those who have proven it
by buying from you already. These folks have
chosen to pay attention to what you have to say,
have expressed interest in what you sell and
have acted upon that desire by spending their
money. These satisfied customers are the best
prospects for future sales.
You should be continuing a dialogue with these
people. You need to capture their e-mail
addresses. This shouldn’t be difficult since
they already have chosen to give you their
money.
Your next best prospects are those who have come
up just short of buying. They have indicated a
desire or interest in your products or services.
Capture their e-mail too. These prospects and
customers are more likely to be willing to allow
what you send to bypass their spam filters.
Establish a long-term, two-way communication to
capitalize on their customer loyalty.
To build your in-house list, capture the data in
every venue you can. On your Web site include a
form for comments and for those who desire to be
kept informed of news of your company. In your
snail-mail mailings ask for responses that
include the recipient’s e-mail address. In your
advertisements solicit e-mail from people who
desire to know more about what you can do for
them.
In every forum solicit e-mail addresses. But
always be certain to explain fully that the
recipients will be contacted only as long as
they desire to be. Make it clear in your opt-in
e-mail solicitations that there is an exit, an
opt-out option at any time.
Here are some conditions to consider in your
opt-in, e-mail agreement, which should be given
to anyone asking you to contact them:
- Ask
participants to confirm that they are acting
on their own e-mail account.
- Make
it clear they agree to receive periodic
e-mails from you for specified purposes. Be
specific, but the more specific you are, the
narrower the permission you obtain.
- Agree
not to disclose e-mail addresses or personal
information to third parties.
- Send
an e-mail to the person requesting to be
included in your mailings asking them to
confirm the request. This is a safeguard
against malicious third parties placing
others’ e-mail addresses in request forms.
-
Archive all requests to be added to your
list in case someone’s memory fails later
and takes exception to your e-mails.
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