How An Opt In Email List Helps Your Business

We live in a heavily wired and connected world today. With the spread of the Internet, a majority of businesses have moved to the online world. Gone are the days of the purely brick and mortar based business models. As the online medium grows and more people conduct business online, there are opportunities galore for marketing specialists to come up with new techniques and strategies to reach out to consumers. Opt-in mails represent one such new initiative or means that marketers can use to communicate with their target consumers online.
 
Opt-in mail is also known as permission marketing, where marketers ask e-mail of the visitors to their site to have the permission to send them information of products and services that are on offer. In opt-in mailing system, the company forms mailing lists of those who agree to or opt in favor of receiving e-mails from corporate entities. It is quite necessary for companies to gain specific permission from the recipient/s or else the mail is considered to be a spam*. When people permit marketers to send opt-in mails, they acknowledge the fact that the company could send updates, newsletters, e-mails and notifications about product or service offerings.

*SPAM: They are unsolicited emails that are being sent to many email address mostly using a software (an automated process) to market a product or service online. Please note that SPAM is illegal. You can read more about the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

However, an opt-in email is perfectly legal, as the subscriber has given permission to receive the mail in his/her inbox as per the terms when they signed up. Also they can unsubscribe at any time they wish to.

If you are a marketer, you can effectively use opt-in mail as a strategy to spread the word about your brand, your products or services, thereby giving a boost to your sales. For instance, if you want to build your company brand, you can send specific and well packaged e-mails about your brand values and core company philosophy as part of your brand building efforts. You can also promote some contests and brand promotion activities via opt-in mails that can attract new and repeat customers to your business. One of the smart ways to attract a loyal set of customers is to offer significant discounts to those on your opt-in mailing list. This has been very effectively employed by various media and magazine companies that offer huge discounts to those who opt to get such mails.

The advantage of opt-in mail list participants is that these people already have some brand loyalty and identification with the company as they have agreed to be a part of the list. After all, people would not want unwanted mails or spam from companies they do not believe in, would they? So opt-in mail lists represent an almost ready set of consumers who can be persuaded with some effort, to take a look and try out goods or services that you are marketing. This is what repeat purchase and ‘up-selling’* is all about where the consumer either purchases more of the same product or buys units of other products that you have on offer.

*Up-selling is selling two or more products to the same customer(s) again and again. In fact up-selling is one of the most important factors why marketers try to get a subscriber base. Lets take an example. You have a product and you have sold it to thousands of people and most of them are in your opt-in list. Now if you want to launch a new product it’s easy. Just inform the thousands in your list and with a click of a button they know about your new product without even reaching your site. Since they are already interested in receiving mails and know more about your company it is possible that a percentage of them might buy your product. This way you not only make money but also know the first reviews about your product from your existing customers. You can use these as testimonials and sell even more products. Up-selling is easy if you have an opt-in list, else how do you inform most of your existing customers?

Opt-in mails are also very cost effective and you can easily maintain them. This does not need hugely expensive marketing campaigns and advertisement as you are just sending e-mails. Opt-in mailing list also gives you the opportunity to reach out to focused or targeted audiences, especially for products that are more specific by nature (like industrial marketing or specific interest products). When you send such mails, consumers can spread the word around to friends and relatives.

In brief, opt-in mailing list is the brand new and exciting facet of Internet marketing that you can capitalize on to promote your brand and achieve significant sales volumes.

Do you have an opt-in list? How do you use it?