Although it may not be practical to put a dollar-sign value on an e-mail address there are many financially-savvy reasons to start collecting e-mail addresses if you havent already begun. If you have, keep reading for a few more tips on e-mail address collection at the end of this article.
Communicating by e-mail has a number of benefits:
1.Quick response - Youll be able to measure the effectiveness of your message in about 48 hours, which also means if you are asking for donations to a non-profit organization or selling something online youll have money in-hand sooner than you would with direct mail.
2.Learn something - A content strategy that tracks the recipients activity within the message will teach you something about their interests.
3.More affordable - E-mail allows you to communicate for pennies per message instead of the dollars per message it costs to send direct mail.
4.Better results - Response rates to e-mail communications are often better than traditional direct mail.
5.Segment & strategize - The technology available to deliver thousands of e-mail messages at a time also enables you to segment groups and target specific groups of people with a message just for them.
6.Its the culture - Most professionals who work at a desk every day (and many who dont) are accustomed to using e-mail as a regular form of communication. According to the 2004 Pew Internet & American Life Project, 93% of online Americans use e-mail.
The e-mail addresses you have already collected, just like mailing addresses, are most valuable when they belong to the people who are connected and informed participants in your organization. Many organizations who consider buying an e-mail list will soon learn that their money will be wasted on strangers because their best prospects are the ones who are already acquainted with the good work you do. Therefore, it is worth the effort to cultivate your current list and do all you can to acquire their e-mail addresses and their permission to communicate with them by e-mail.
How to collect e-mail addresses:
1. Provide a subscription form on the front page of your website and then give them something to subscribe to: an e-mail newsletter, weekly tips, articles, resources, etc.
2. Remind people to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter in the signature of every person-to-person e-mail message you send out. Have every employee and volunteer do the same.
3. Instruct your staff and volunteers to keep this top of mind -- ALWAYS ask for an e-mail address: in person, on incoming and outgoing phone calls, visitors, events, etc.
4. Include a line for e-mail address on every return-reply mailing, including event RSVPs.
5. Determine a method for collection ANYTIME you are face-to-face with donors. Dont forget events that have volunteer sign-in sheets, raffle ticket sales or silent auction bids/purchases.
6. Implement a forward-to-a-friend strategy and consider offering an incentive for people who send multiple forwards.
7. Avoid being accused of spam - be sure to share your privacy policy with an assurance that you will not sell or share their information and, by all means, ask their permission to contact themthrough e-mail.
Merritt Olsen is a freelance writer and marketing consultant specializing in online and e-mail marketing. Need unique content for your e-mail newsletter that you cant find here Merritt has the experience and the savvy to write about a variety of topics and can be reached through .
Copyright 2004 Merritt Olsen & The Pursuant Group. Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your website so long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided to .
Sound familiar Ever wondered what happens to those unopened emails that you see in your stats from your latest email campaign/newsletter Yep, you guessed it-their mail servers are doing it for them.
This is what is referred to as a False Positive. It means that although the recipient has opted in to receive your newsletter, for some reason or another, the mail servers filters have deemed it to be Spam and, in most cases deleted it, before the recipient has had the chance to give their verdict on whether it was worth opening or not.
In order to protect themselves (and presumably us) against the onslaught of unwanted emails, the servers have implemented filters, which are designed to stop Spam in its tracks. Of course there are bound to be some casualties - and in this case it is your legitimate correspondence.
There are four main things that happen when an email is filtered - depending upon which type of filter is being used.
Community: This is based on the community joining together and installing the filters, then reporting any occurrences of Spam. False Positive occurrences should be low, but in reality they arent. This is due to a couple of reasons: The first being the weed theory. What one person regards as a weed, another may regard as a flower. We all have different opinions. The other is that many people are now reporting once wanted email as Spam instead of unsubscribing.
Blacklisting: ISPs generally use their own proprietary lists of known Spammers, created by themselves. Third party blacklisting companies also publish databases of Spam senders. False Positives are extremely high, as these third party blacklists have no accountability. In fact anyone can report an IP Address as a Spammer and do not have to qualify their reasons.
Address recognition: Senders email address is in the recipients address book or the servers/gateways acceptable list. Email senders must earn their position within these lists.
Trapping: The filter company plants email addresses all through the Internet to attract Spam Harvesters. Once the false addresses receive Spam, the source of the Spammer is identified; the sender is then blocked immediately across all users of the filter. False positives are extremely low.
Challenge-Response: This white listing concept is based on all emails being Spam and the sender having to prove otherwise. Before an email is delivered, the ISP or PC that uses the filter challenges that a human sent the email. The sender has to then manually click the link and then they are added to the subscribers permissible list. Any auto-responses such as Double Opt in responses do not work well with this type of filter.
Rule-Based: This is the most commonly used type of filter on a server. It catches Spam by rejecting/accepting messages based on predetermined rules of what is acceptable.
Bonded Sender: Email markers gain status as a non-Spammer through these bonder senders and are therefore permitted through the filters.
Volume Blocking: Spammers are known to send high volume emails without thought to speed, volume or list cleanliness. The ISP sees the large amount as well as the other problems and terminates the connection.
Probability: Using rules, a method learns the users definitions of Spam and decides what may be regarded as Spam. False Positives increase as rule-based Spam is reduced.
Remember though, not only are you dealing with rule-based filters as well as the other types of filters (and most servers use a combination of filters), you also need to get past the personalised filters (i.e. the recipient themselves), so be sure to test your campaign thoroughly before sending it.
Kath Pay is a Director of Ezemail Pty Ltd, (www.ezemail.com), an innovative company that provides comprehensive email & SMS marketing solutions ranging from DIY newsletters for small businesses to email/SMS campaign management for large international corporations. For more information on how easily email/SMS marketing can be implemented, please contact Kath on