Opt-In Strategy & Planning

An opt-in list is one where people have knowingly signed up to receive certain mailings from you at a pre-agreed frequency. They may have agreed to receive your newsletter, product announcements, site updates or even product offers and advertisements from you and your partners.

Email can be a powerful marketing tool, but it's up to the marketer to initiate and maintain relationships via email -- not the list broker, list aggregator, or any other entity. The only legitimate email marketing that Foreground Image recommends involves using a list built by the sending company. All it takes is a small number of vocal people to complain about you to their ISP, the search engines, your host, or the legal authorities, and your business will be ruined.

By creating a legitimate email list, you will be able to reach your targeted customers without the fear of being labeled as a spammer.

Websites and online ads may be primary drivers in an acquisition campaign designed to build your list, but there are many other ways to acquire subscribers. For example:

• Offline media, especially direct mail
• Onsite promotions and events
• Print and broadcast ads
• Current customers

Online you can:

• Offer an E-zine on a subject of interest to your target market.
• Offer a single or a series of free reports through your auto-responder.
• Offer a free e-book that will be of interest to your target customer.
• Offer to keep customers up-to-date on your specials and sales.
• Offer customers a discount coupon for joining your list.
• Ask potential customers if they want to be on your list.

A little creative brainstorming will help you decide which media can best help to build your list with subscribers who are interested in your offering. Once you accomplish building a list, you will be able to effectively market to this list for many years. Since your list is being mailed to a highly "targeted" list of recipients, your chances of success will be much higher.