Collect data and build your list for email marketing

Step three

Build A List Of Information And Target Audience,

Successful email marketing starts with a quality list, after all, Marketing 101 tells us that we need to know our audience.

Do you know your list?

Take some time to note what information you have now and make a plan for how to capture additional information over time, the more you know about your readers, the easier it will be to provide valuable content within your communications, for our example company, their lists currently look like this:

List Name	Source of List	Permission	Status	Known Fields
Customers	CRM	Yes	Exported and ready	name, address, phone, email
Product A Prospects	Trade Show	No, need to invite	Spreadsheet, ready	name, email
Interested Prospects	Website	Yes	Text file, ready	email

Now think about what information you have and what you’d like to know about new prospects and customers, typical information below:

• Demographics (marital status, income, location, etc.)
• Interest area (product A or B, specific service, information, etc.)
• Amount purchased, donated, etc.
• Business info (industry, title, etc.)
• Time frame for making a decision,

Budget

The most powerful aspect of email marketing software is that you can segment your contacts based on known information, letting you send targeted and personal messages.

1- Collecting Data at the Right Time

After you have determined what type of data you have and what you need, the next step is to determine at what point you collect that information.

Do you ask for it all up front?

Depending on your target audience, you may need to limit the amount of information asked initially so you don’t put customers off, here are a few additional times you can collect information:

1-Have the Thank You page ask for additional information post-subscription

2-Include survey questions throughout the life of the newsletter

3-Include a survey in the confirmation or welcome email

4-Prompt subscribers to update their information periodically

2- Plan for a Growing Email List

An important element of any email marketing strategy includes plans for continuing to grow the list, below are ideas for planned tactics to promote each newsletter ;

1-Include “forward to a friend” in all outbound emails

2-Drive all prospects to the website from all advertising

3-Have newsletter opt-in box in the checkout of e-commerce area of the website

4- Put website on all basic company docs: stationary, business cards, etc.

5-Have customer service ask all callers if they’d like to receive the newsletter

6-Include a link to the newsletter sign up form in email signature (all employees, especially support and customer service staff)

7-Add sign up form for the newsletter on the website in a prominent area.

Note, If you have no list and are starting from scratch we suggest:

-Start collecting email addresses from website.

-Appending email addresses to your existing prospect/customer database

Step Four

Organize By Department Or Group

So far we have reviewed the purpose of email marketing and have looked at how it can complement existing marketing activities and provide a way to capture new leads and help build relationships, you know your audience now, so the next phase of building your email marketing strategy involves getting organized internally.

After you have outlined how email marketing can fit into your own process and have identified your audience, you will start to see many opportunities of how to organize the information to reach your original goals.

A simple communication chart will help you understand the role of each of your external communications and will help you get a feel for the resources required to produce each item.

Here’s an example:

Communication	Owner	Audience	Format	Purpose	Frequency
Monthly newsletter	Marketing	Customers, advocates, community, analysts	Template	Retention	Monthly
Promotion update	Product Marketing	Prospects, customers	Unique each time	Acquisition	As needed
Press release	PR	Journalists	Stationary template	Inform	As needed
Industry newsletter	Channel Marketing	Prospects, customers	Template	Retention	Bi-monthly

As you can see from this example, opportunities for email communications exist among other departments.