E-Mail : Winning Over the Inbox

Three good reasons to take another look at your e-mail list

I often call list growth "The Holy Grail" of e-mail marketing—it's one of the most desired, yet elusive, goals of any e-mail marketer. According to a recent study by Forrester Research, "finding new e-mail subscribers" (44 percent) and "retaining existing" ones (29 percent) rank among the top five challenges e-mail marketers say they'll face during the next two years, consistent with survey results from many years prior.

Here are three good reasons why marketers are right to be so concerned, and why you should be taking a closer look at your own e-mail list:

1. List Attrition Runs Rampant
E-mail churn can do a number on a marketer's list. According to Epsilon's 2009 Global Consumer E-mail Study, 69 percent of North American e-mail users occasionally or frequently opt out of e-mail marketing messages. And opting out is only one way to lose a subscriber: If a user clicks the "Report Spam" button, most ISPs will block future messages from the sender to that user.

In addition, large numbers of addresses simply end up "going bad" when a user changes or cancels an e-mail account. Industry experts, including the Relevancy Group's David Daniels and FreshAddress's Bill Kaplan, tell me that the average e-mail churn rate has held steady at around 30 percent for the past decade.

2. Disengagement
Large numbers of existing e-mail subscribers are inactive or "disengaged." A study conducted by EmailMarketingReports.com found that the longer subscribers are on a list, the less likely they are to open a message. After being on a list for two years, the propensity for subscribers to open e-mail declined by nearly 40 percent. Loren McDonald, vice president of industry relations for Silverpop, estimates that 30 percent to 50 percent of the average e-mail marketer's list is composed of subscribers who are no longer engaging with the messages they originally opted in to receive.

ISPs are becoming increasingly intolerant of over-mailing—especially to inactive users—and doing so can damage your online reputation and trigger blocks and spam-folder placement. In his June 2009 E-mail Marketing Forecast, Daniels noted: "No longer will e-mail marketers be able to dismiss critical tactics, such as removing dormant subscribers from their mailing lists, in order to improve message delivery."

In addition to deliverability problems, marketers also needlessly waste capital every time they deploy e-mail to an unresponsive address.

3. Standing Out in the Crowded Marketplace
Capturing the attention of potential new subscribers is tougher than ever. With social networks like Facebook and Twitter, mobile apps for smartphones, and other new media competing for their attention, the old model of waiting and praying for consumers to find your website—and eventually your opt-in page—is dead. Today's consumers expect speed and expediency.

Cultivate E-list Growth
Marketers should address these e-mail list challenges by working along three separate yet equally important workflows: e-mail address retention, re-engagement and new customer acquisition. There are a variety of tactics you can employ to accomplish these objectives:

• Leverage every opportunity to convince existing subscribers not to leave. For starters, make changing or updating one's e-mail address clear and simple. Highlight the ability to do so in every e-mail you send, as well as when consumers log in on your website. Furthermore, incentivize consumers to stay on your list by offering them greater control over their subscriptions, including the ability to manage contact frequency and refine newsletter content. Peoples' wants and needs change over time; retain their e-mail addresses by changing with them.

• Re-engage the disengaged. Consider deploying a reactivation campaign specifically tailored to people on your list who have shown little to no signs of life for the past few months. You may want to ask them to re-opt in, or you may even want to experiment with pushing them to your social media sites or pages if these are their new channel preferences.

• Push your opt-in form to consumers wherever they are. Whether consumers are mobile, active on social networks or checking out new websites, put registering for your e-mail list front and center. Take advantage of new technologies, such as in-banner sign-up forms and transparent cost-per-lead registration path advertising to attract new subscribers where they are, and when they are in the moment.

Maintaining a healthy, engaged e-mail list is a lot like gardening: You should nourish what's already in the ground, pull out the weeds and constantly plant new seeds. Let it grow.

Jordan Cohen is vice president of business development of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Pontiflex, a cost-per-lead marketplace. He can be reached at jordan.cohen@pontiflex.com.

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