Awareness / Acquisition Objectives -
Building your email database
Some strategies you can use to increase the size of your email database. Asking permission is critical!

Include an email newsletter subscription form on your website
Including an email newsletter subscription form on your website is a simple way to quickly capture email addresses of prospects or leads. Once a person has subscribed you can program the form to alert you of the new subscription and can also send them a customised email automatically.

Use Opt-in Direct Email Marketing lists to capture email addresses
Unlike direct mail, with email marketing it is not a matter of simply purchasing a list of email addresses from a list broker and sending out an email from your company. This approach is likely to be perceived as spam, reflect poorly on the brand and yield poor results. The best opportunity for marketers is to use third-party email services, such as opt-in offer services and newsletters, where the recipients have given their permission to have these sent to their inboxes. There are a range of opt-in email marketing services available for Australian companies. Some of these services include, Yahoo! Delivers, SMS pup, Email Cash, GeospendDirect and many others. Try typing these names into the Google search bar and see what comes up.

Also there are a number of firms that allow sponsorship of their opt-in email lists – these initial emails are a great way to promote your service to a targeted audience and if used effectively can generate a large email database. Approach one of your own favourite newsletters to enquire about sponsorship.

Offer an incentive or competition via Direct Mail, Fax or your webpage
Use a Direct Mail or Fax campaign to encourage clients and prospects to provide their email addresses by offering an incentive or a prize for doing so. Ensure that the incentive or prize is strong enough to encourage a reaction.

Use telemarketing to gather email addresses
A telemarketing campaign is a quick and effective means of gathering email addresses from clients and prospects. This short-term project can easily be outsourced to a telemarketing firm and can allow you to generate a sizable email database in a short period of time.

Combine telemarketing and direct marketing
Using both telemarketing and direct marketing will increase the response rates of your email address acquisition campaign.

To get started: Contact your agency or an online publisher (e.g. Fairfax or News) likely to attract your target audience. Ask if they can provide third-party direct email services, or have an affiliated company that does. Or, contact a direct marketing agency that specialises in interactive marketing solutions for a consultation.

Retention Objectives -
We are all well aware that it costs less to retain an existing customer than it does to acquire a new one. Not surprisingly, advertisers have to date primarily used email marketing for retention and up sell. This can be achieved by simply sending customers a text email with an update on your products, services or company every month, provided they have asked for it and it adds value to their lives. These can take the form of newsletters, or customer service emails, depending on your product and the available content. The possibilities are endless.

If you’re not sure how to get started, here are some ways:
Email Bureaus / Agencies
There are many advertising and interactive agencies offering newsletter production and campaign management services to companies. They can not only provide the delivery of the emails, but also strategic, creative and campaign analysis services, alleviating the marketer of these resource requirements.

Some of the benefits of using an agency are:

• email template design
• SPAM Act compliance
• unsubscribe management
• detailed reports – returns, open rates, click throughs, forwards etc
   

To get started: Ask your agency if they provide this service, or have an affiliated company that does.

Email Campaign Management Systems
Alternatively, agencies or companies may wish to manage their email marketing in-house. Companies can purchase the services of an online email campaign management system. This type of system is run via the Internet and the marketer pays only for the number of emails they send. It will require more internal resources and take more time to build an in-house database, but there are no expensive hardware or software requirements up front and you benefit from the provider doing all the development and improvements on the systems as time progresses.

Issues to consider if you do it yourself:

• Can your email server handle the loads?
• no personalisation i.e. “Dear Paul”
• difficulty managing unsubscribe requests

To get started: Determine whether you would be better off using an established bureau/agency that has the skills to manage your email campaigns or you’d rather manage it entirely yourself, in-house.

Email Content
If you are short of interesting, relevant content for your email marketing programs – particularly if you want to produce regular newsletters, some publishers are willing to provide their content for a fee (known as syndicated content). Depending on your audience, this could range from providing stock quotes, the latest IT news or information for small business owners. It can be expensive to hire the necessary staff to develop this material in-house, but having compelling content as part of your regular retention emails is a great way of ensuring your emails are opened and read, and not viewed as irrelevant sales material.

To get started: Fairfax Digital, News or other publishers can provide companies with syndicated content in electronic format from their editorial resources, or, speak to your agency about alternative sources.

Summary
In summary, you can get started by asking yourself five simple questions:

1. What role do I want email to play in my marketing strategy and     what are my objectives?
2. Do I have a sizable database of email addresses from people who I have a relationship with or who have given me permission to send them emails?
3. If I don’t have a sizable database, who can help me reach people interested in hearing about my products & services?
4. If I do have a sizable database, how can I best communicate         with them regularly and what information do they want to             receive?
5. What systems will they use to run their email marketing   campaigns?