Opt-in e-mail options for customer acquisition
For acquiring new visitors and customers to a site, there are three main options for e-
mail marketing. From the point of view of the recipient, these are:1 Cold e-mail campaign. In this case, the recipient receives an opt-in e-mail from an organi-
sation that has rented an e-mail list from a consumer e-mail list provider such as Experian
(www.experian.com), Claritas (www.claritas.com) or IPT Limited (www.myoffers.co.uk) or
a business e-mail list provider such as Mardev (www.mardev.com), Corpdata
(www.corpdata.com) or trade publishers and event providers such as VNU. Although they
have agreed to receive offers by e-mail, the e-mail is effectively cold. For example, a credit
card provider could send a cold e-mail to a list member who is not currently their
member. It is important to use some form of ‘statement of origination’, otherwise the
message may be considered spam. Cold e-mails tend to have higher CPAs than other
forms of online marketing, but different lists should still be evaluated.
2 Co-branded e-mail. Here, the recipient receives an e-mail with an offer from a company
they have a reasonably strong affinity with. For example, the same credit card com-
pany could partner with a mobile service provider such as Vodafone and send out the
offer to their customer (who has opted in to receive e-mails from third parties).
Although this can be considered a form of cold e-mail, it is warmer since there is a
stronger relationship with one of the brands and the subject line and creative will
refer to both brands. Co-branded e-mails tend to be more responsive than cold e-
mails to rented lists since the relationship exists and fewer offers tend to be given.
3 Third-party e-newsletter. In this visitor acquisition option, a company publicises itself
in a third-party e-newsletter. This could be in the form of an ad, sponsorship or PR
(editorial) which links through to a destination site. These placements may be set up
as part of an interactive advertising ad buy since many e-newsletters also have perma-
nent versions on the web site. Since e-newsletter recipients tend to engage with them
by scanning the headlines or reading them if they have time, e-newsletter placements
can be relatively cost-effective.
Viral marketing, which is discussed in the next main section, also uses e-mail as the
mechanism for transferring messages.Opt-in e-mail options for prospect conversion and customer
retention (house list)E-mail is most widely used as a prospect conversion and customer retention tool using
an opt-in house listof prospects and customers that have given permission to an organi-
sation to contact them. For example, Lastminute.com has built a house list of over 10
million prospects and customers across Europe. Successful e-mail marketers adopt a
strategic approach to e-mail and develop a contact or touch strategy which plans the fre-
quency and content of e-mail communications as explained in Chapters 4 and 6. Some
options for in-house e-mail marketing include:
Conversion e-mail– someone visits a web site and expresses interest in a product or
service by registering and providing their e-mail address although they do not buy.
Automated follow-up e-mails can be sent out to persuade the recipient to trial the
service. For example, betting company William Hill found that automated follow-up
e-mails converted twice as many registrants to place their first bet compared to regis-
trants who did not receive an e-mail.CHAPTER 8· INTERACTIVE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Opt-in
An individual agrees to
receive e-mail
communications.
House list
A list of prospect and
customer names,
e-mail addresses and
profile information
owned by an
organisation.