E-Mail marketing

Remember Me?

"Most marketers have email addresses for less than half their customers and prospects," says Reggie Brady. If this sounds familiar, you should consider using an email appending service. The larger services maintain databases with as many as 90 million individuals. You provide a name and mailing address, and they give you the email address associated with that contact. In a B2B setting, match rates range from 10 to 15 percent; the B2C scenario has an expected 25 to 30 percent success rate.

Once you have the email address, your next step is to get the contact's consent by sending what's called a permission pass. "You should explain the existing relationship, tell recipients you would like to ... communicate with them via email, and give them a clear opportunity to opt out," says Brady. After that, the regular rules of email marketing apply.

Brady says one magazine publisher reached out to her using this method, and she was generally impressed with its approach. She received seven messages over the course of three weeks. The first offered 26 issues for $20. The second and fourth contained variations on the initial deal while the fifth and seventh messages offered a four free trial issues. She did not appreciate messages three and six, however, which came from third-party advertisers. Although the permission pass had mentioned the possibility of such offers, it wasn't clearly worded.

The Po!nt: Using an email appending service is a great way to reach existing or past customers. As long as you follow proper etiquette, you could see a great response.