Want to Grow Your E-mail List? Turn to Direct Mail

With studies showing the average e-mail list suffers an annual 30% attrition rate, e-mail list growth requires an aggressive lead generation program to do more than just run in place. And direct mail is a great way to rev up that e-mail opt-in acquisition, asserts Cyndie Shaffstall, founder of Spider Trainers, a managed automated e-mail services provider, in a recent Target Marketing blog post. Using direct mail will avoid the risks of e-mail renting, purchasing, borrowing and partnering, risks that run from customer complaints all the way to getting blocked or blacklisted, she points out. Direct-mail lists also are typically less costly than e-mail lists, providing cost savings that can be applied toward mail postage and printing. To execute your mail-to-e-mail conversion campaign, obtain a direct-mail list sans e-mail address but otherwise using list selects for appropriate targeting. The goal is to collect e-mail addresses down the road -- e-mail addresses specifically opted in to your messages. Next craft direct-mail creative that will entice engagement through the use of a high-value offer and drive traffic to a targeted squeeze page and, in many cases, from there to a microsite. The squeeze page and/or microsite will be focused either on introducing the brand or introducing the product, depending on the audience's level of brand recognition. Mail recipients attracted to the squeeze page or microsite will be asked to supply an e-mail address. Visitors may also be asked to respond to a limited number of simple questions for lead scoring. Lead scoring of responses can flag recipients ready for immediate sales follow-up (high scorers), or move respondents into an active nurturing campaign (mid-range scorers), or drop prospects into a drip campaign (low scorers). To maximize e-mail opt-ins, Shaffstall notes two key tactical issues. First, the higher the value of the gift, the higher the conversion rate. Second, the more focused your direct mail list, the more likely it is that the audience will be receptive to your offer. For an example of one company's successful implementation, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/mail-to-email-conversions