Email Lists: Core To All Digital Marketing

Written by Amanda Johnson, Marketing Communications Specialist here at Visible Logic & Mail on the Mark

I recently attended the Agents of Change Conference here in Portland, Maine. I have attended this conference for the past 3 years, and one thing that was mentioned several times and among multiple speakers is that you must continue to nurture and grow your email list.

Live and Die by Your Database

During the “Make Your Own Game” keynote by Chris Brogan, he stated that “you live and die by your database.” Now, that may seem like an intense statement, but there’s a reason he said this so strongly. Your list is made up of people who you serve content to, and in turn, you (hopefully) gain their trust. Once you’re seen as a reliable and valuable resource, you’ll be able to make an “ask” of your audience. That may mean asking them to complete a survey, or maybe you’re trying to sell them a great system or service you’ve developed. At that point, your list doesn’t need to waste time wondering what you’re all about, as you already have a history together.

Make Writing a Habit

Beyond this, Chris had great tips for creating awesome content: Write as if you’re speaking to someone you love and your message will be more authentic; write at least 300 words each day to make writing a habit; and make the text bigger because, according to Chris, “the people with bigger wallets need larger text.”

Content Must Look Good on Mobile

Rich Brooks, who organized the conference, spoke on Mobile Marketing and the importance of how content looks on mobile. According to Rich, about 72% of people delete email if it doesn’t look good on their phone. In other words, make it easy for people to consume your content!

Consider Those with Fat Thumbs

Stephan Hovnanian, of Bambu by Social Sprout, spoke in depth about relevance in email marketing and how list segmenting can work for businesses. For instance, if you have a local event happening that you want to promote, you shouldn’t promote that event to out-of-state subscribers. And if you do, your unsubscribe rate is likely to increase. Stephan also offered simple but crucial tips, such as leaving plenty of space around clickable buttons for those with fat thumbs!

Long Live Email Marketing

For those of you who don’t already know, Visible Logic created Mail on the Mark, a full service email marketing service, to provide a tailored and branded experience for email marketing. So you can imagine how happy we are that email marketing remains strong for yet another year in the world of digital marketing.

Happy writing!