New Strategies for Growing Your E-mail List

Arthur Middleton HughesSenior StrategistSilverpop

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Begin by computing Lifetime ValueThe 3 year projection of what these 219,467 people will do during the next three years.

This shows that for every sale in the e-mail there are 2 more sales off-line due to the e-mail.

Each of these 219,467Subscribers is worth $30.37 in three year profit to this company – even though 90% do not open and thousands unsubscribe

Subscriber Lifetime ValueRates This Year Next Year Third Year

1 Subscribers 219,467 208,199 197,510 2 Unsubscribers 2.38% 5,232 4,963 4,709 3 Undelivers 2.75% 6,036 5,726 5,432 4 End of Year Subs 208,199 197,510 187,369 5 E-mails Delivered 60 13,168,020 12,491,940 11,850,572 6 Opens 9.23% 1,215,886 1,153,459 1,094,238 7 Unique Clicks 26.68% 324,422 307,765 291,964 8 Conversion Rate (% Opens) 3.54% 11,477 10,888 10,329 9 Off-E-mail Multiplier 2.00 22,954 21,776 20,658

10 Total sales due to e-mails 34,431 32,664 30,987 11 Total Revenue from E-mails $135.68 $4,671,741 $4,431,881 $4,204,337

Costs 40% $1,868,696 $1,772,753 $1,681,73512 Subs Acquisition Cost $0.12 $26,336 0 013 E-mail Sending $6.50 $85,592 $81,198 $77,02914 E-mail Creation $11.39 $150,000 $142,299 $134,99315 Total Costs $2,130,624 $1,996,249 $1,893,75616 Profit $2,541,116 $2,435,633 $2,310,58117 Discount Rate 1 1.1 1.2118 Net Present Value $2,541,116 $2,214,211 $1,909,57119 Cumulative NPV $2,541,116 $4,755,328 $6,664,89920 E-mail Subscriber Value $11.58 $21.67 $30.37

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Set a goal: add 100,000 Subscribers

• If you can sign up 219,000, you can certainly add 100,000

• All you need is the willpower and a budget. • Anyone can do this. Here’s how…

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There are many methods

• Appending e-mails• Fix the website• Provide rewards to

subscribers• Popover on the website• Promote in transactions

• ECOA• Reward phone reps• Birthday Rewards• Make it easy to change

your e-mail address• Have a contest

Create a goal and a plan and budget to achieve

the goal

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Fix your website Excellent website… but the website signup is hard to find. There is no reason given for why you should sign up.

Result: not enough sign up.

Study your website. Make signing up very rewarding for the subscribers.

Here’s a good one:

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Popovers are powerful

They can be triggered when you open a web page. They can be triggered when you leave a web page. They can be triggered when you click a link in a web page. They can be triggered by a timer that is activated when

you open or leave a web page.

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Reward your subscribers

Rules: The reward is an inducement to subscribe. Not available to others Free shipping for subscribers Lower prices on some products for subscribers A contest where subscribers are eligible for prizes A discount A birthday present News of new products before anyone else gets them A white paper on an important subject Games, screen savers, etc.

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Why not try a contest?

Rules: Tell them about the contest as an inducement to subscribePrize given away every month.To win, you just have to open your e-mail in that month and click on anything.

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Reward Phone Reps

• Anyone who calls up should be asked, “Do we have your e-mail?”

• Phone reps get a salary. If you also give them $3.00 per e-mail signed up, you will get many more.

• The reward is given only when you send a welcome e-mail and the subscriber clicks, “Yes, I want to receive your e-mails”

• If each subscriber is worth $26.01, why not give $3.00?

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Make it easy to change your e-mail address

• Many undeliverables occur because subscribers have changed their e-mail address.

• Put a box somewhere on every page that says: “Are you changing your e-mail address? If so enter your new address here, and we will make sure that we do not lose you”

• As soon as anyone has entered a new address, be sure to thank them and send them a confirming e-mail.

• This simple step may prevent you from losing hundreds – or thousands – of subscribers every year.

That was easy…

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Birthday E-mails Work

Rules: Tell them about the birthday gift as an inducement to register.

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Use ECOA

ASPCA Sheds Dog-eared Donor Email Addresses with ECOA

ASPCA uses Email marketing to stay in touch with its constituents. Due to the high churn rate of email addresses, however, email bounces were an ongoing problem. By sending to incorrect addresses the high bounce rates could trigger unwanted attention from ISPs in the form of blocking and blacklisting.

ASPCA contracted FreshAddress to perform an ECOA project to find updates, confirm deliverability of the updated email addresses and ensure its constituents’ permission. Within a week, the problem was solved.

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Use transactions to gain subscribers

• Buyers should be thanked for any purchase.• All thank you messages should have a link that

says “Keep me up to date on the latest fashions.”

• Result: your subscriber list will grow each day

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Append e-mails to postal addresses

• One company sent eight million customer names and addresses to FreshAddress. He received back 1,016,454 new e-mail subscribers. The cost was about $0.13 per subscriber added.

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Create an annual goal and plan

Set up a system so you can learn how many you have every month. Keep your eye on

the numbers till you reach your goal.

Tactics to Boost SubscribersAdded

Subscribers Cost EachBudget for Program

Profit from new

subscribers LTV1 Improve Website 4,000 $0.50 $2,000 $121,480 $30.372 Append E-mails 20,000 $0.20 $4,000 $607,400 $30.373 Popover 6,000 $0.67 $4,000 $182,220 $30.374 Transactions 6,000 $0.67 $4,000 $182,220 $30.375 Contest 20,000 $1.50 $30,000 $607,400 $30.376 Birthdays 10,000 $2.00 $20,000 $303,700 $30.377 Reward Subscribers 19,000 $0.79 $15,000 $577,030 $30.378 Reward Phone Reps 5,000 $3.00 $15,000 $151,850 $30.379 ECOA 8,000 $0.38 $3,000 $242,960 $30.37

10 Easy to change e-mail address 2,000 $0.50 $1,000 $60,740 $30.37Total 100,000 $0.98 $98,000 $3,037,000

Available on Amazon.com

Ahughes@silverpop.com

Also see:www.dbmarketing.com