Discover the Power of E-Mail Marketing
Part I: Building Your Mailing List
In 1997 — approximately four decades ago in Internet years — Dave Farrar of Gypsy Divers in Raleigh, North Carolina, invited me to qualify his staff instructors to teach Nitrox. To help make the trip worth my while, he suggested I teach a consumer-level Nitrox course at the same time.
In so far as this took place on short notice, I had little hope of seeing more than a handful of divers in addition to the instructor staff. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the store to find the classroom filled with over 20 smiling faces.
“How did you do it?” I asked Dave. (I’d never seen a retailer fill a class so quickly.)
“That’s easy,” Dave replied, “I just e-mailed everyone and told them they had to come.”
This was my introduction to the power of e-mail marketing — and it was at a time when e-mail access was nowhere near as common as it is today. I’ve seen many examples of successful dive store e-mail campaigns since — as well as examples of ineffective (or downright abusive) efforts.
As many of you already know, done correctly, e-mail can be a powerful marketing tool most of your customers will welcome (and one that won’t cost you a penny in printing or postage). Done incorrectly, it will be ineffective and — worse — can generate ill will. So, how do you do it right? There are two steps:
- Building and managing your mailing list.
- Using your mailing list effectively.
In Part I of this series, we’ll look at building and managing your mailing list. Among the topics we will cover:
- Respect your customers’ right to privacy.
- Clearly explain your intentions when collecting e-mail addresses and other contact information.
- Have a published mailing list policy.
- Collect e-mail addresses (and other contact information) at every opportunity.
In Part II of this series, we’ll look at using your mailing list effectively. Look for this in our next issue.
Respect your customers’ right to privacy »
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