We're always recommending that clients complement their new web sites with marketing strategies that will drive traffic. With online marketing talk focused mainly on the realm of social media, well, call me old school, but it's inspiring to see impressive returns using good old fashioned email.

One of our clients, Rebecca Shambaugh of SHAMBAUGH Leadership, came to us last summer to redesign her company's site. She was open to the idea of blogging. She had just written a book and was no stranger to getting her ideas and experiences in writing. However, her core audiences aren't guaranteed blog readers. So what better way to reach more traditional corporate audience members than by email, a tool they're comfortable and adept at using?

So, whenever this CEO publishes a new post on Becky's Blog, she also sends out a quick email to about 2,500 contacts. The email is usually just the first paragraph or two of the blog post with a link to read the rest on the site itself. Since she started this process in March, she's averaged a 37 percent click-through rate of those emails that were opened; meaning that of the 20 percent (500) or so who open the email, nearly half (250) click through to read the rest of her posts online. 

That's about 250 readers who likely don't have RSS readers and who almost certainly would not have received her blog content otherwise.

Email catches flak with spam abounding, but it's still a viable, core component of business online.

Recently, a client posed this question (I’m paraphrasing): "I have a list of 350,000 email addresses that I collected over the last 5 years. I don’t know how many of them are legitimate. I haven’t used their email addresses for anything before. I want to announce our re-launch and re-engage users. What’s the most cost effective way to get value from these email addresses?"

The first thing I did was verify that all 350,000 email addresses had, at some point, been willingly provided by individual users. The client confirmed that, while it may have been five years ago, all of these people gave an email address willingly. This is essential, but may still not be good enough (see below).

The second thing I focused on was the idea of "cost effective." Most ESP's will charge for every email sent.  Therefore, it’s tempting to find a way to scrub the defunct email addresses prior to sending the message. I’ve heard of people using email validators; but, I haven’t used one myself. 

Quickly, however, I shifted my attention to trying to understand the potential value of this big list. What makes these email addresses precious to the client? Conversely, what’s at stake if we misuse them?

Continue reading "Wrestling with Big, Old Lists"