Blasting Your Way Into Inboxes – Part 2

In Part 1, we covered developing the right message. Now, let’s look at reaching the right audience.

The Right Audience
Proper email campaigns deliver interesting, pertinent information to a target audience in the hopes of generating quality feedback. It should not be only a one-way communication from you to them. Properly executed, it can be a vital tool in building a mutually beneficial relationship with customers, prospects and other important audiences.

Most companies begin with their ready-made audience—their customers. But before sending that first blast, be sure you have permission from your audience to communicate with them in this fashion. It will minimize spam complaints, increase deliverability, decrease liability and should ensure better open-and-click results. It’s recommended that email invitations be sent first, to allow each one to “opt-in” to your communications plans.

There are many ways to obtain appropriate, targeted audience lists, and marketing professionals are a great resource. Remember that the more targeted the audience, the better the results from each campaign.

Securing the right lists is important. Managing those lists is paramount. Whether you try this on your own or secure professional help, make sure “opt-out” requests are cleared from all company lists, and segment your lists in appropriate ways to narrow the target for each blast to increase responses. Stay up-to-date. Follow up permissions with an email blast within six months or the permission is considered “stale.”

Marketing professionals have found that a small, responsive email list is much better than a large, indifferent one. That’s why the more effort you take to let recipients know you understand them and their needs individually, the better the response you will get to your blasts.

An art in itself, managing email lists can be a time-consuming effort. But those lists are at the heart of your efforts. Make it a priority to continually build and refine your lists. The better managed the list, the more exact the segmentation will be. And the more focused the message, the higher your ROI.

Next week, Email Blasts will conclude with a focus on The Right Time.

Melinda