E-Mail : Winning Over the Inbox

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

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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