Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Building Your Opt-in E-mail List

Posted by Anonymous on 2/7/2014 at 12:14 PM ET 250 Points
We are currently using two Email Marketing Systems. One of them is a non opt in system. It's pretty antiquated actually. We also have a modern Email Marketing System. The old one is used to email to the folks we have in our old database. This is not an opt in list. We want to be able to market to those folks using our modern system but since they haven't opted in to the new system we cannot. Obviously this is a blacklist issue. The question is, have any of you migrated from an old system to a new one and if/so have you been successful. Have you dumped from the old system to the new? Have you promoted your new system to the rest of your client base? We are looking at creating an email that invites them to the new system but the problem there is that we would still need to use the old system to do this. Sorry that's a bit disjointed. Feel free to ask qualifying questions.
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by modza on 2/7/2014 at 3:42 PM Accepted
    I had a CEO who demanded that we market to his (scraped) list, and we indeed were blacklisted for months, so you're absolutely right to be cautious-- and since he did it from our own servers, we ended up having to change our domain name and hosting company because not even personal email was getting through.

    Even with a fully opted-in list, it's painful but wise practice to offer people the opportunity to opt out once or twice a year -- they'll appreciate your concern. You can soften it and learn more with a quick survey allowing them to adjust frequency and/or specify topics. And that's how I would ease the transition.

    It's important to brace yourself to lose a LOT of your old list. Very painful, but good for the longterm. Note however, that anyone who has ordered from you does NOT need to be opted-in again -- you already have a business relationship with such people. So segment your list first. Import the actual customers (I'm not sure if there is a law about this, but I think up to a year is safe) into the new system. For the rest (haven't ordered ever, or haven't ordered in under a year):

    Will the old system allow you to embed HTML? Then you can embed a sign-up button in your invitation to re-sign up -- that links to the new system's options page, offering different frequencies (or longer gaps between emails), and topic choices, if you have or can manage that.

    If you don't even want to use the old system for this last purpose, there is one ethical mail service I have used that does accept non-opt-in lists: https://hypermail.com.

    Best of luck!

  • Posted by Moriarty on 2/7/2014 at 5:25 PM Member
    "The question is, have any of you migrated from an old system to a new one and if/so have you been successful."

    OK. Here's a really clever trick I learned. Now this isn't guaranteed to work with your old list - but it will do some magic.

    You can take your email database and tip it into the paid Facebook advertising algorithm.

    They'll do the rest. Of course you'll need an attractive offer and some landing pages - and a little money up front. Those who are on Facebook will be shown your ads. They can respond if they want or not. There are a few more tricks to this - but this is the real whammy: Facebook give you insights from the people who DID respond.

    Now this is HUGE.

    Because whilst you have an antiquated email list - there will be interested people on it. Facebook will tell you things about them AND (and it's a really big "and") they'll carve out an entire slice of Facebook members who happen to fit the profile of the people who clicked.

    That way you get your interested parties onto your new list - and new members too. And being Facebook you can get them at a very reasonable cost.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/8/2014 at 9:43 AM Member
    I'm wondering how effective the Facebook suggestion above be. Although it might work for a percentage of respondents, won;t this only be the case IF those people are on Facebook?

    You might be better off sending people on your old list a message that direct them to a new landing page and a new opt in link that connects to your new system.

    As an incentive, offer people on the old list something of high perceived value and make it clear that this thing is your gift to them to thank them for remaining on your list.

    Send 3 to 4 emails, in sequence, to your old list and reference the first email in the second if the first message gains little traction.

    As each new name is added to your new list, remove it from the old on.

    After a month or so of sending messages, consider on last message to the people on your old list that includes one final call to action and a sign off that says something along the lines of you're sorry to see them go if they choose not to respond.

    Once you've migrated as many people as you think will move to your new list and as the numbers of those people shifting from the old to the new decline (because with time there's probably less hope of bringing in the laggards), them them go and move on.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 2/12/2014 at 4:31 AM Member
    Response to Gary - "I'm wondering how effective the Facebook suggestion above be." - I've heard some very good results.

    Plus, even if many do not respond - those that do will have a character and the Facebook algorithm will find you more like them. A great way to use an old list.
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(E-Marketing)