Advanced Email List Growth | Jeanne Jennings

Advanced List GrowthStrategies and Tactics to Take Your

List Growth to the Next Level

Jeanne S. Jennings,Consultant, Email Marketing Strategy

Columnist, ClickZ.com Experts

List GrowthThe Good News• 73% of email

marketers are seeing list growth– 22% say it’s “very

positive”• 22% say that gains

are balancing out the losses

• Only 5% are seeing decreases

Source: 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, MarketingSherpa

List GrowthTacticsSweet spot: Top left

Quadrant• More than 50%

effective, less than 50% difficulty– Registration during

purchase– Registration for

downloads, etc.• Social sharing

buttons in email– 10% effective, 25%

difficulty…

Source: 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, MarketingSherpa

Online Call to Action Placement

Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com

Elements– Benefit-oriented language– Incentive– Form field– Engaging creative– Privacy statement

Online Calls to Action

Sources: The Email Marketing Kit, Jeanne Jennings (SitePoint)

Registrationfor Download• Incentive

featured in the CTA and reinforced on the sign-up page

• Download can be whitepaper, free trial, etc.


Online Registration

• 5 to 7 fields max

• More fields = higher quality

• Fewer fields = higher quantity

• Analyze your abandon rate

Source: The Email Marketing Kit, Jeanne Jennings (SitePoint)

Online RegistrationExample: SparkPeople

• Benefit-oriented descriptions of email newsletters

• Two boxes are pre-checked• The rest are not

• Frequency is mentioned

Online Registration | Thank You Page

• Don’t just say thanks for signing up

• Use your thank you page to drive people back into your Website

• And move them toward your business goal


Welcome Message

• High open and click-through rates– If you give them a

reason• Reiterate benefits• Provide a call-to-

action and link– Even better: special

offer with urgencySource: The Email Marketing Kit, Jeanne Jennings (SitePoint)

Good Double Opt-in Example: Cirque de Soleil

• Let them know they need to respond to the email

• Make the email clear and focused on this action

• 20% to 40% won’t respond• Cirque de Soleil

gets >80% response

Source: Best Practices in Email Marketing Handbook (2009), MarketingSherpa

• Challenge– Leverage the most popular

state tourism Website into an email list acquisition tool

• Goals – Convert a higher percentage

of new visitors to email newsletter subscribers

• Campaign Elements– “Michigan Travel Ideas” free

premium– Interstitial overlay screen

with email sign-up form• Long version

– Name, email address– U.S. Postal Address

and Free Premium• Short version

– Name, email Address only

Source: New Opt-in Tactics and Welcome Series Deliver big Lift in Subscribers, Engagement, MarketingSherpa, January 14, 2010

Case Study: Travel Michigan

Case Study: Travel Michigan • Results

– Newsletter opt-ins grew 2,000% year-over-year

– Home page bounce rates dropped 69%

– 52% sign-ups out-of-state residents (previously 25%)

Source: New Opt-in Tactics and Welcome Series Deliver big Lift in Subscribers, Engagement, MarketingSherpa, January 14, 2010

Leverage Social Media Sharing for Reach and List Growth

Social sharing rates average 0.5%

Forward-to-a-friend rates are typically only a few tenths of 1%

Shared emails delivered an average increase in reach of 24.3%

Sources: Emails Gone Viral: Measuring ‘Share-to-Social’ Performance, Silverpop, September 2009; Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com

With

Without

Case Study: Breaking Point

Source: How to use Social Media and Email for Prospecting: 8 Essentials, MarketingSherpa, January 28, 2010

Online Events / Webinars

• Webinars are more difficult because you have to plan the event

• But once you get it down to a science, it’s easy to do on an ongoing basis


Offline Sign-upsExample: Essential Apparel• Call to action on

invoice• Ordered from

Amazon, no relationship with this company

• Incentive• Detailed instructions on

how to sign-upSource: Critique of an Offline-Online Email Sign-up Teaser Process (1 of 2), Jeanne Jennings (ClickZ), March 8, 2010

Additional Resources

“Email Marketing” column written by Jeanne (10+ years)• Every other Monday in

the “Experts” Section• May other columnists

as well• www.ClickZ.com

Free Email Newsletter on Effective Email Marketing

• Market research• Articles• Other resources

• Published monthly by Jeanne• www.JeanneJennings.com

Advanced List GrowthStrategies and Tactics to Take Your

List Growth to the Next Level

Questions?Jeanne S. Jennings,

Consultant, Email Marketing StrategyColumnist, ClickZ.com Experts

[email protected] | 202.333.3245www.JeanneJennings.com