eAdvisor - Feature Article

Your eNewsletter IS Your Best List Growth Tool

As marketing professionals, a common goal is to create, communicate and deliver valuable company information to prospects and customers. But when it comes to communication distribution, one of the biggest challenges is quality list growth.

"When growing your list, look at quality as well as quantity," said Jeanne Jennings, a leading e-mail and online authority and independent consultant. "Hordes of people who aren't your target audience aren't worth as much as a small quantity of qualified people. Your registration process should balance quality with quantity issues."

So how do you gather quality leads? One easy way is to create a value-based proposition. This begins by offering a prospect or customer something of value, such as an eNewsletter in exchange for their email address. What if you do not have an eNewsletter or you do not feel like it is valuable to the end reader? That exactly is the point of this article.

Your eNewsletter IS your best list growth tool. Without an eNewsletter it will be harder for a company to grow a quality list.

Why is that so?

1. Until there is a real purpose to collect emails within the organization it is hard to lead a campaign to collect email addresses.
2. Salespeople dislike surprises and are always concerned that their prospects will be bombarded with non-valuable information which is too salesy. Until they have a chance to review a few issues of the newsletters it will be hard to get them motivated to provide you with their contacts' email addresses.
3. Your best sign ups are people who have seen an example of your eNewsletter on your Web site, or at a tradeshow or from a salesperson or coworker. If it visually looks like it is high-quality, and appears to contain helpful information you will gain more of the kinds of targeted readers you are looking for. The next step requires building trust. Once you have an email and permission, build trust by communicating with valuable information. Be sure to have a clear company strategy about what the recipient will be receiving in exchange for the email they've provided. Sending too many sales emails will not build trust or a relationship. In addition, sending nothing or sending infrequent communications can not be too good for business either.

Once you are confident you have a way to regularly produce a quality eNewsletter, list growth can begin by using the following methods in tandem:

Sales team – Have your salespeople collect email addresses and permission from all qualified leads. Make sure those emails get added to your database. Keep all collected data in one central place.

Web site – Add a registration option on your Web site to gather information from visitors. If you are investing in SEO and SEM efforts, an eNewsletter can help add fresh content to your site. Make sure to educate SEO prospects as they go through the sales cycle.

Trade shows – This is a great time to gather email addresses and permission from visitors and attendees. Remember it usually takes much more than one trade show follow-up email to gain a new client.

Trade publications – Include a registration form or URL when placing an ad. That way, readers can subscribe to learn more about your organization.

Seminars, workshops, demos – Collect pertinent information to provide a complete contact profile on each attendee and company.

Customer service – When people contact your organization, be sure to gather all relevant information and add it to your list. This is a greatly under-utilized way for the company to collect more email addresses.

Telemarketing – Offer to add people to the distribution list so they can learn more about the organization. Your timing may not be right but the prospect may want to stay informed for a future need.

eNewsletters – This is one of the best marketing tools to grow your list. Be sure to include a subscribe area on the eNewsletter, so readers can easily subscribe if the eNewsletter was sent to them from someone else.

Direct mail – Attach a request for more information card to each piece of literature. Make sure the information can be easily returned to the organization.

Blog – Ask participants to provide email addresses before reading or posting on your blog.

To summarize, your quality eNewsletter is your best list growth tool. Without it, all of the other traditional list growth options will not be maximized.

Communication distribution and a quality list are a few ways marketing professionals contribute to company success. If you're ready to start communicating, consider a high-caliber eNewsletter. The professionals at Proven Systems can help 970-223-6565 or visit www.ProvenSystems.com.

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