The effectiveness of your email marketing programme is heavily influenced by the size of your opt-in subscriber base. The more opt-in subscribers you have, the more interaction and ultimately revenue you can generate.

Data collection is the single most important factor in any email marketing programme. But while buying a database from eBay might give you millions of new email addresses, it definitely won’t improve your results. Indiscriminately increasing the size of your database is a futile exercise if you’re not focused firmly on quality.

Market forces

Companies such as Groupon have recently demonstrated the value of the email marketing database. The group discount firm is currently valued at around $30bn (£18.2bn) and its revenue for 2010 exceeded $700m (£426m). This is due in large part to the size – and quality – of its email marketing database.

Groupon ensures the quality of its lists by insisting that all users give contact permission before they are allowed to use the service, and clearly communicate the value of doing so. Groupon’s business model also supports data collection, based as it is on the sending of emails on a daily basis. There are definitely lessons to be learned from this approach.

Before you do anything set yourself a target for the number of opt-in subscribers via your website. Ask yourself these questions. How many visitors come to your website and what percentage of those visitors are opting in? Finally, set yourself a stretch goal based on your answers.

So how can you then encourage more customers to opt in to your database and give you permission to contact them?

Optimise online subscriptions

When it comes to improving the quality of your data, online is a great place to start – and optimising the subscription process can be highly effective.

• Encourage opt-ins by making the subscription process as clear as possible. This re-enforces trust and gives potential customers a reason to subscribe.
• When customers make a transaction, take the opportunity to encourage them to give permission to receive further marketing communications.

Drive offline customers online

Getting in touch with offline customers is often overlooked as a method of data collection. Yet this is a rich source of quality information. Collecting email permissions from offline customers – both actual and potential – opens up new and more direct channels of communication, and the appeal of using a more cost-effective purchasing method is a powerful USP.

• Collect permissions at Point Of Sale, and send a follow-up email as quickly as possible.

Why “Where can I buy a list to boost my database?” is so the wrong question…

In a nutshell:

I’m always being asked:

Do you know places where I can add names to my list?

Do you know where I can buy lists to boost my database through third-party acquisition?

This is the wrong question, and it usually comes from people who have no need of the magic bullet of list acquisition. Big brands that spend a fortune on their website and getting you to remember the url. Retail outlets with annual footfall in the millions…

Yet these brands often have websites that have not been built with list building in mind. The situation is made worse by the fact that their email programs are so self serving – giving little reason for website visitors to sign up.

The fact is that businesses like this are missing opportunities to transact with and get people to sign up to their list every single day. It’s incredible when you contrast how much is spent on getting people to remember URL’s or find companies through search, with how little is spent on email – the most cost effective way of getting customers directly to your site.

Make more of your existing list

So in our view the answer to the question about third-party lists is: don’t. Instead, think about making more of your existing list by building names organically, creating a newsletter program worth subscribing to, and making it ridiculously easy for people to subscribe from your website?

An audit of the whole subscription process can be very useful here. It’s the moment to ask: Is this newsletter programme truly valuable? Is there really any point someone signing up to my email at the moment?

As part of the audit process, look at your goals. Do you want to build a list quickly or do you want to amass lots of information for segmentation later?

On the latter, our view is: don’t collect a single piece of info you’re not going to use in the next 12 months. You’re better off collecting just email addresses than asking for too much information if it means fewer people sign up.

Use the website to promote the newsletter program

On the website, you need to build in email collection points everywhere – build email subscription into the website template, if possible.

And if you’re going to give something away, build in data capture. I’m constantly amazed by how few viral campaigns include data capture. What a waste!

Your subscription process should make sure everyone understands precisely what they’re going to get – sell the value of the email program. Include a well considered welcome programme, to capitalize on that window of maximum engagement – at the start of the subscription process.

After all that, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be asking about third-party lists any more because you’ll be doing a far more effective job growing your list organically…

When collecting data, many email marketers find themselves torn between the desire to collect as many email addresses as possible – pursuing an acquisition strategy and the need to gather detailed information about each new subscriber – a segmentation strategy. Asking for too much, too soon might chase prospective subscribers away, taking with them your opportunity to develop a long term, profitable relationship. For some – those who only care about list growth or those who can or will not accept any compromise when it comes to collecting information; this is not an issue at all. However for the vast majority it is necessary to strike a balance between list growth and the need to know more about subscribers, unfortunately this often leads to a situation where you optimise neither. But you can achieve both by using a two stage subscription process where you capture additional data from those willing to give it without losing people who are only prepared to share their email address.

Our First Law of Email Marketing states that your email marketing program should be the primary way your customers and prospects visit your site and interact with your brand online. As email is the most cost effective way of getting someone to interact with you online, it is important that you have the email address of as many customers and prospects as possible. To achieve this, the process of acquiring an email address should be as quick and simple as possible – after all a valid email address (with consent) is the only piece of information that you really need!

Allowing a customer or prospect to provide you with nothing but their email address does not mean that you forgo the opportunity to segment or target for ever. The point about having an email address AND permission is access to the customer or prospect. As long as you have that you will have plenty of other opportunities to build your understanding of their preferences and collect data for future segmentation and targeting. If you do decide to ask for more information at the point of email address capture you may want to consider making any other questions optional.

If there is another piece of information that is mission critical you may be able to build it in to the form in a way that does not get in the way of collecting the email address. ASOS have built gender capture into the submit button, which is both creative and effective.

The first opportunity to ask for more information post email address capture is your subscription confirmation page or your welcome message – valuable opportunities that are often overlooked. If you feel that this is too soon you may chose to wait until you have built some trust before you ask.

Many people tend to be wary of providing significant amounts of personal data so a general rule of thumb when considering what data to collect is only collect information that you will definitely use in the next 12 months!

It also helps to “sell” the additional value they will gain from providing you with more information. The use of incentives can also be effective.

Don’t worry too much if significant numbers of the people who sign up do not provide you with any other information at all; the great thing about email is the fact that you can find out a great deal about any given subscriber is interested in by tracking opens and clicks. We use this information to do what we call Inferential Targeting here at Alchemy Worx.

Landing pages are another effective way of delivering targeted content and offers to self selected segments of your list.

Remember, if you fail to maximize the number of people who have given you their email address and permission to market to them – you are breaking a fundamental aspect of The First Rule of Email Marketing.

Email is the cheapest way to contact customers and prospects, and new subscribers are generally the most active on email databases. So as an email marketer, your priority should be getting permission to email anyone who has expressed an interest in your product or brand.

So how and where should you ask them to subscribe?

• Place subscription links on your website
• Ensure maximum visibility
• Include a “more information” link
• Target online and offline purchasers
• Generate new subscribers in other ways
• Track the source of each subscription

Place subscription links on your website

To convert site visitors to email subscribers, it’s essential to place subscription links on your website. For people to subscribe to your email marketing program, after all, they first need to know it’s available.

Visitors to your site may not come directly from the homepage, or may not be ready to subscribe when they first visit. So place a prominent link to your subscription process on every relevant page of your site, and within any appropriate copy, navigation bars and side rails.

Email marketing will provide a long-term revenue stream but your website should be designed to achieve the maximum return for all your website offerings. Whilst email subscribers and registration link placement are important, don’t forget the importance of immediate revenue generating activities, like purchases. Make sure these different activities are never fighting each other – and don’t forget always to get permission from your purchasers too.

Ensure maximum visibility

To make sure your subscription sign-up link is seen by as many potential subscribers as possible, consider:

• a link in the navigation bar
• text links within website copy
• a well executed pop-up window and/or animated gifs
• a “send to a friend” link on relevant pages with subscribing details included in the message sent
• limiting access to valuable content on your website to email subscribers only – ask them to log in or provide the information in a triggered email when users subscribe

Include a “more information” link

A “more information” link will give you enough space to outline the benefits of your emails and their frequency to potential subscribers. If you’re not sure what information to include here, see our article on Pre-subscription.

Target online and offline purchasers

Both online and offline purchases can generate email subscriptions. Include information about your email program on every touch point you and all employees have with customers and prospective customers.

This may include:

• outgoing email signatures
• telesales
• in store
• blog posts
• articles
• presentations

Under UK Data Protection legislation you’re allowed to contact past customers without their express consent. However, we recommend giving people the option not to receive email communications from you when they buy.

Generate new subscribers in other ways

Coupons, competitions and prize draws can have a viral effect and contribute to the growth of your subscriber database. Make sure that anything of value you offer to relevant prospects is designed to collect data and permission to email.

If you are using a competition to generate new subscribers, make sure you offer a prize that’s complementary to your product offering – this will mean the most appropriate subscribers will respond.

Track the source of each subscription

This will provide valuable data on the most successful approach and give you access to some information about each subscriber without having to ask.

How can you make sure that email is the main way that people you know visit your website and interact with your brand online?

Effective email campaigns can help you avoid losing prospective customers, or exposing existing ones to your competitors in a search engine environment.

When most email marketing programmes start, many companies overlook the subscription process because of limited time and resources and a general pressure to get emails out. But your campaign’s ongoing success will be strongly linked to the health of your subscriber list.

It’s never too late to rethink your subscription process, and this series will show you how to ensure your list is constantly refreshed with clean, active, subscribers who enjoy a long-term, mutually beneficial email relationship with your company.

To inspire you to look at your own subscription processes in a new light, each month we’ll examine a different aspect of the subscription process and share our insights on how to optimise your process to meet your marketing objectives. Plus we’ll show you how to comply with industry best practice and legal requirements.