Growing your email list is a vital part of marketing success.
Lon Haenel, the founder and president of Local News ROI, shares his recommendations for growing this list and, ultimately, winning permission to market to local residents.
“Marketing is a process … not a project.”
- Ask for an email address with every customer service touchpoint (vacation holds, payment, service questions, etc.). I would include every inquiry made by the advertising staff. And I would encourage the newsroom to ask each caller if he or she is signed up for newsletters. Each new newsletter consumer is another valuable email address.
- Your contest and survey activity. That’s another reason to do more.
- Web registrations (Example: activating your print account).
- Your digital-only subscriptions.
- Your classified private-party customer list.
- Last year’s county fair, home show, boat show where you promoted the newspaper’s multimedia solutions. (“If you collected addresses, let’s use them.”)
- EVERY circulation sales channel (kiosk, telemarketing, direct mail, samples, etc.).
- Users coming to your website (Again: “Ask them to type in their email address for newsletters.”).
- Renewal bills to subscribers. Go so far as to offer a buck or two off the subscription cost for those who give you an active email address.
Haenel was a guest speaker in the New York Press Association’s “How to grow audience and revenue derived from audience” workshop. His tactics also are included this Relevant Point:
“When customers give us permission to market to them, we take that seriously,” he said.
Haenel should know. He is the Local Media Association’s 2014 Digital Innovator of the Year.
Even more reason to treat email addresses as if they are golden.
