Keep Your Mailing List Up to Date - Web Hosting Tips

Are You Annoying Your Customers?

Does your marketing strategy include a specific plan to annoy your customers? Probably not. Unfortunately many ecommerce owners are (unintentionally) doing just that through their emails.  Many well-meaning, ethical ecommerce owners are sending messages to their mailing lists that, from the recipients’ point of view, look a lot like spam. And the “S” word is the last thing on earth that you want associated with your online business.

Despite massive attempts to eradicate it, spam remains annoyingly alive and well. In fact, spam represents over 66% of all email sent. Ferris Research estimates that the cost of Spam to the U.S. economy is more than $10 billion per year. That includes the consumption of computer resources, help desk personnel time and worker productivity.

Obviously you want to distance your business from anything that remotely resembles spam. But that is easier said than done. After all, email-based marketing is one of the most powerful tools available to small and medium-sized businesses. Communicating to your mailing list is a key to survival. Given that fact, it is critical to understand the proper way to email newsletters, special offers and other information in a way that sheds a positive light on your business.

Web Hosting Tips for Mailing List Management:

• If someone requests to be removed from your mailing list, honor their request immediately. We’ve all had the harrowing experience of “unsubscribing” to online newsletters only to have our requests ignored. The chances of us ever spending our hard-earned bucks with a company that ignores us are slim to none. Make sure you have a user-friendly way for people to unsubscribe from your list. Let them reply to your email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line or provide a link that will quickly take them to a site where they can easily remove themselves from your list.

• Ensure that your customers and potential customers understand why they are receiving your email. Use phrases like “You are receiving this email because you recently signed up to receive special offers from our company” or “You recently purchased a digital camera from us and we’d like to make this special offer to you.”  If your customers understand that they have a pre-existing relationship with you then they will be more inclined to view your email as a positive experience.

• Keep your mailing list up to date. Go through your list periodically to make sure it is current and accurate. Your web host can help you find a way to easily and quickly achieve this goal.

• Be courteous. Let recipients know how often they will be receiving email from you. For some people once a week is fine and for others once a month is excessive. Stay in tune to their needs and they are far more likely to reward you with their business.

• Do your research. Seek to understand what your customers really want, not what you THINK they want.

• Educate your customers. To demonstrate your commitment to ethical customer service, include articles on your web site that explain what spam is and how to fight it. If you have people working for you, make sure they understand and abide by impeccable emailing practices.

• Make it easy for your email recipients to contact you. You can put a link directly to your “contact us” page. Include your email address, your street mailing address and phone number. It is much better to give them the option to contact that you so can take care of their issues quickly and personally. (This also screams integrity to your intended audience.)

Your web hosting provider can help you find appropriate ways to get messages to the people on your mailing list that won’t be perceived as spam. Your web hosting provider is much closer to the front lines of this issue than you are, so trust their expertise.

It takes some effort to keep your mailing list and your messages in line with your marketing efforts. The effort is well worth it in terms of your company’s reputation. Work with your web host to make sure that your company’s name is never, ever associated with the “S” word.

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