Question

Topic: E-Marketing

How To Harness Customers' Email List

Posted by Anonymous on 7/23/2010 at 2:18 PM ET 250 Points
I own a online mail-in laptop screen replacement business (Screen Surgeons). If a customer damages the laptop screen, they find me online (adwords) email an inquiry, and if they agree to the terms, ship their laptop to me to get the screen replaced. I get about 10 inquiries a day by email. So over time, this adds up to a substantial email list. How do I market to this list without spamming and what are some ideas of products and/or services to market?
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  • Posted by michael on 7/23/2010 at 4:07 PM Member
    If they have provided you their email address you are ok to contact them. From that point on, all your emails should have an opt-out message at the bottom.

    Some will say that you should have an opt-in when they provide their email address, but I disagree. Most people understand that you will contact them if you have a business relationship.

    What to offer. Depends on what you can do. YOu can always offer batteries and laptop supplies. Not to difficult to do that online.

    I really like crucial.com. YOu may not, but take a look at what they offer. You might do some of the same.

    Michael

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/23/2010 at 6:19 PM Member
    Dear wefixscreens,

    Agree with Michael by a bajillion percent. Fair game. Your list is fair game. By providing you with their contact details the people contacting you are giving you permission (of sorts) to market to them.

    BUT ...

    In ALL your communication (and in any opt in form or web page where people contact you) offer a check box, the checking of which is mandatory, that says something along the lines of "By checking this box you agree to receive e-mail communication from us".

    But in ALL your outgoing e-mail you MUST include an "Unsubscribe" link and you MUST honour all requests to be bumped from your list: no exceptions.

    I hope this helps. Good luck to you. And if you need reports or publications you could upsell to your list, let me know.

    Gary Bloomer
    The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted by Norwood on 7/25/2010 at 6:09 PM Accepted
    First, I agree with what the other members suggested, have an Opt-out option ALWAYS at the end of your emails. If you let them opt-out is less likely to be perceived as SPAM.

    Whether they will perceive your emails as SPAM or not is probably based on the following factors:

    1. Frequency of emails: Don't email them all the time. The frequency of your emails should be enough that they will want to open your message but not that frequent that will annoy them. This is tricky, and it varies by industry and situation. You could try monthly emails and track results (open rates, click through rates) to see how you're doing over time and change if you see a consistent drop in your results. Very likely that how fast you can create content will dictate how often you can send it out, but be consistent.

    2. Content of emails: Avoid sending only sales promotions or content that's too sales oriented, it will likely annoy your customers.

    3. Relevancy of emails: Related to the content but goes a step further, relevancy means that what you are sending them is relevant to what they want/need. The content of your email could be greatly written and interesting, but if it's not relevant to their current needs it is useless to them.

    And your second question is "what are some ideas of products and/or services to market?". Well, this is where you will be able to differentiate your company and have your emails treated as SPAM or not... and is the $100,000 question!

    Based on what you told us, you could generate content like the following:
    - tips for taking care of your laptop
    - hardware and software tweaks that will improve your laptop's performance
    - laptop reviews
    - how to buy a laptop that will survive college (or work, or whatever is your target market demographic)
    - how to choose the best laptop screen for your needs
    - how to fix dead pixels and other DIY laptop repairs
    - great deals on hardware/software from the web

    As you see above, there are some common themes, i.e. laptop and laptop screens/repairs/tweaks. This is one way to go about generating content that might interest your customers. Choose something that you're an expert on and that can relate back to your business. The best is the content that someone will want to forward to a friend, and the friend now becomes interested in what you do.

    Hope this helps!
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