How are you talking to your customers? If you say ‘email’, you’re right! Email may be an old medium these days, but it’s also one of the strongest with close to 1.3 billion* email users worldwide. That’s almost one in every five people on earth using email! But how do you get their address?
There are a few ways to go about gleaning customer’s digital addresses:
1) You can use various services to buy email addresses by the bulk, which can funnel to meet your preferred audience’s stats.
- The potential problem with this method is that you’ll be sending unsolicited (don’t worry, it’s legal) email, and your complaint rate could shoot up.
2) After a customer has purchased something from you, whether it be at your physical or digital location, you’ll more than likely need their email address to contact them.
- This method of gathering addresses takes time, and now that they’ve patronized you, they’ll undoubtedly take a spending break.
3 (and the best!) On your website, have a conspicuous link to sign up for your newsletter. You’ll immediately grow your list with interested buyers, as well as your lovely customers that have come back time and again. Have an example of your newsletter on the site, so they know what they’re signing up for, and give them some options (i.e. “What are you interested in?” check boxes). Don’t bog them down with pages of required information; just a simple form will do.
You don’t have to ask for or buy your email addresses if you let your customers take control and tell you what they want. Easy stuff!
*Radicati Group study in August of 2008
