Opt-in email lists are incredibly powerful tools for direct mail marketing. Consider it: These are lists of people who have self-selected and said they want to hear about your type of product or service.
When using opt-in email lists, the match between your offer and your audience is critical to response rate. Sending offers for cruises to a list of retirees who’ve opted in for travel-related offers makes good sense; sending it to a list of families with new babies who opted in to get family entertainment offers — probably not. (Targeting your offers to the appropriate opt-in email list protects your company’s brand, too. This is particularly important when you are sending to relatively small business-to-business lists.)
Email marketing experts are pretty much agreed on the elements that boost response rates:
- The right list. Choose the right list, and test the list before rolling out the campaign. (See below to find out how Marigold can help with testing.)
- The right timing. In many cases, sending mid-day to businesses and Fridays to consumers proves most effective.
- The right amount of information. For email, short and simple is the rule. Keep in mind that more and more business people read their mail on PDAs, phones and small-screen laptops.
- A clear call to action. People reading email ask right away “What am I supposed to do with this?” Make it easy for them to find the link that takes them your site or sends an email reply.
If you’re looking into email marketing, or exploring ways to increase the responses to your current campaigns, Marigold’s account executives have access to a network of list owners in a broad range of business areas who can be relied upon for legally and ethically acquired data. We can help match your campaigns to the right CAN-SPAM compliant email lists and we can handle your email campaign logistics from testing to reporting metrics. Find out more about using opt-in email lists.