Andrew J. McClary
Washington, DC

Having a relationship with your leads is a wonderful way to increase your conversions. If you have a list of highly relevant and opt-in subscribers, your chances of selling your products and services via a newsletter are significantly higher than any other advertising venue. The only caveat—you have to do it the right way.

The old way of e-mail marketing just doesn’t work, here’s why. For one, buyers are generally reluctant to give their e-mail address to someone they don’t trust. So if you’re unable to establish that trust, you won’t be able to get them to subscribe. Your goal should be to establish a relationship with these potentials. Your newsletter should be very relevant and provide valuable information without attempting to sell your products to them. The idea of an e-mail newsletter should be to promote your brand, not necessarily your products.

Many companies purchase e-mail addresses. This is also a disaster waiting to happen. More is not better. It is far more effective to have a smaller list with relevant subscribers, than a huge list of untargeted leads who are just going to drop your e-mail into their SPAM folder.  In the United States, there are also legal ramifications for not following the CAN-SPAM act. You are not allowed to add someone to your list who has not first opted in. This must be done through a double opt-in process, where they sign up and confirm by clicking on a hyperlink sent to their e-mail address. You also have to give them the opportunity to unsubscribe.  Failure to follow these rules can result in fines and will get your mail servers blacklisted.

The irony is that while so many companies take extreme measures to acquire leads and send mass e-mails to promote their products, doing so usually accomplishes the opposite goal. Regardless, making e-mail marketing work for you is not as hard as it sounds. We would love to help. Contact us today!