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By Dave Hendricks
Like many marketers today, you have probably heard that Web site banner ads are a dead marketing format.
The next big thing is e-mail marketing. "It's all about customer relationship management, or CRM," you're told: If you don't establish an online relationship with your customers—and fast—your competition will eat your lunch.
So now you're amassing the biggest e-mail list you can manage.
Your goal? You want to try to get visitors to sign up. What for? More information and offers.
Next? Monetize them, perhaps by acquiring individuals' permission to send the infamous "third-party offers from like-minded partners."
Profiting from the E-mail Marketing Revolution?
Now that you have their permission to receive offers from you and your partners, you're ready to start profiting from the e-mail marketing revolution! You've got everything you need to start renting out your names to other retailers who want to reach your audience and sell them things, right?
With visions of sugarplums and easy money, you call your local list broker and tell him or her all about your e-mail list.
But reality soon hits. You have accumulated names, names and more names, but you have no idea how many or why they signed up other than to get your newsletter or to enter your sweepstakes. You don't know what offers or messages they'll respond to, or whether they'll drop off or bounce.
In short, your e-mail customer list, without performance history, has lost its value in today's list-saturated world. But you did what you were supposed to: You created an e-mail list from your popular and relevant site.
So what was missing? Demographics, performance and a successful campaign or two.
If it's all about CRM, then indeed, e-mail marketing is the ideal tool for learning about the performance history of your online customers.
Unlike catalogs or print direct mail, which must rely on response codes to determine their success, e-mails can be tracked for their opens, clicks and even purchases. The two are as different as a rifle with a scope in broad daylight and a shotgun in the dark.
The Right List Puts You on Target
The problem with e-mail lists is targeting—or lack thereof.
An e-mail list that you rent, without results, is that proverbial shotgun in the dark. You don't know who or what you are buying.
On the other hand, a seasoned e-mail list can be segmented into categories such as "openers," "repeat openers," "clickers," "repeat clickers," "buyers" and "repeat buyers."
Like many marketers today, you have probably heard that Web site banner ads are a dead marketing format.
The next big thing is e-mail marketing. "It's all about customer relationship management, or CRM," you're told: If you don't establish an online relationship with your customers—and fast—your competition will eat your lunch.
So now you're amassing the biggest e-mail list you can manage.
Your goal? You want to try to get visitors to sign up. What for? More information and offers.
Next? Monetize them, perhaps by acquiring individuals' permission to send the infamous "third-party offers from like-minded partners."
Profiting from the E-mail Marketing Revolution?
Now that you have their permission to receive offers from you and your partners, you're ready to start profiting from the e-mail marketing revolution! You've got everything you need to start renting out your names to other retailers who want to reach your audience and sell them things, right?
With visions of sugarplums and easy money, you call your local list broker and tell him or her all about your e-mail list.
But reality soon hits. You have accumulated names, names and more names, but you have no idea how many or why they signed up other than to get your newsletter or to enter your sweepstakes. You don't know what offers or messages they'll respond to, or whether they'll drop off or bounce.
In short, your e-mail customer list, without performance history, has lost its value in today's list-saturated world. But you did what you were supposed to: You created an e-mail list from your popular and relevant site.
So what was missing? Demographics, performance and a successful campaign or two.
If it's all about CRM, then indeed, e-mail marketing is the ideal tool for learning about the performance history of your online customers.
Unlike catalogs or print direct mail, which must rely on response codes to determine their success, e-mails can be tracked for their opens, clicks and even purchases. The two are as different as a rifle with a scope in broad daylight and a shotgun in the dark.
The Right List Puts You on Target
The problem with e-mail lists is targeting—or lack thereof.
An e-mail list that you rent, without results, is that proverbial shotgun in the dark. You don't know who or what you are buying.
On the other hand, a seasoned e-mail list can be segmented into categories such as "openers," "repeat openers," "clickers," "repeat clickers," "buyers" and "repeat buyers."
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