Opt-In Marketing: Subscriber Generation vs. Customer Acquisition



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Opt-In Marketing: Subscriber Generation vs. Customer Acquisition
By Brian Alt

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An Ezine-Tips reader asked:

I hope you haven't covered this on another occasion -- I usually print out most of your newsletters! I'm considering doing a mass emailing to garner visitors/buyers for our site and readers for our newsletter and wondered what your opinion is of renting/leasing a list ofopt-in emails from one of the companies who do such a thing.

Have you ever done this? How do I find a reputable company? How much should I pay? Is it effective marketing? And if you feel positively about it, do you have any suggestions that would maximize the success?

Thanks so much for your help!

Judy Pearson
http://www.ComfortFoodOnLine.com/

Thanks for the feedback, Judy. You raise a number of important topics that I would like to address.

First off, opt-in email marketing can be extremely effective if used correctly. By "correctly," I mean by sending quality messages to a responsive list of targeted email users interested in your offer. Getting to that point can be difficult, however.

The best way to achieve email marketing success and to generate a good return on your marketing dollars is to start with small test campaigns, find out what works and what doesn't, and then attempt to replicate successful campaigns on a larger scale. Test different ad copy in a variety of targeted lists. You will also want to try out both opt-in direct email and email newsletter advertising.

Generally speaking, you will stand a much greater chance of achieving a good return on your marketing investment if you are marketing an actual product rather than simply trying to generate Web site visits or newsletter subscribers. As a subscriber acquisition strategy, opt-in direct email and paid ezine advertising can be quite expensive, and if you're not re-couping the costs through the sale of some kind of product or service, your chances at breaking even (or better) are slim.

On the other hand, offering the two in conjunction -- product or service sales plus a free ezine subscription -- is an excellent idea, as you will accommodate both recipients who are ready to buy and those who aren't ready to buy but would enjoy the free information you offer in your ezine. These latter folks may convert to paying customers some time in the future, and because you've acquired them as subscribers to your own list, you won't have to pay to reach them a second time.

Typically, opt-in direct email list rentals go for $50-$300 per thousand addresses (depending mostly on the amount of targeting), while ezine advertising goes for $2-$150 per thousand. They're two totally different monsters, but both can be effective means of customer acquisition.

Ezine-Tips will continue to deal mainly with email publishing topics, but we may explore more on the email marketing side of the coin in future issues.

Resources:

ClickZ offers an excellent weekly column on email marketing: http://clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/cz/index.html?track=26

There are a number of established opt-in direct email services listed at: http://list-advertising.com/opt-in/

Email newsletter advertising networks are listed on the same site: http://list-advertising.com/ad-networks/

Ezine-Tips for December 15, 2000

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Opt-In Marketing: Subscriber Generation vs. Customer AcquisitionBy Brian Alt

Opt-In Marketing: Subscriber Generation vs. Customer Acquisition
By Brian Alt