Email campaign to local home owners

[BTON Agency]

Hi,

I have a database of local homeowners that have opted in for emails. I want to add to this and utilise it more.

I want to set up an ongoing email campaign to local homeowners. I am aware you can buy lists. People's experience, are these lists "Clean"

Also to do the campaign i assume i would use mailchimp (any other suggestions) but want somebody to design me a cost effective template once a month to send out to the database. Any ideas who could do this?

I am hoping this will be more cost effective and will have more control than PPC

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

MailChimp is very good and easy to use, and you can design the template yourself on their site (starting with a template).

In terms of buying a list - it depends on the source how "clean" it is. I've bought some really good lists before from people I knew I could trust.

 

[WebshopMechanic]

@BTON Agency, I wouldn't buy or rent any lists if I were you. I've never had a decent experience with a list broker yet and I've trialed a few in recent years.

Think about it. You're trying to force your way into someone's inbox who has never heard of you and who never signed up to hear from you. How annoyed would you be? (Imagine PPI calls....Grrrr.)

No matter what list brokers say (opt-in, double-opt-in, 10-times-opt-in) those people have not asked to be spammed by a ton of companies. I'm regularly getting a shed load of business services emails in my inbox (loans, energy, telephones deals, etc) and I never signed up to them. I've clearly been added to a list somewhere but none of them can tell me where they got my data.

Anyhow, back to your questions.

Protect, educate and grow your own list. They know who you are and will be receptive provided you give them value.

Mailchimp is a quick and easy tool to use. It's dead simple to create a broadcast and design a template. If you need help on the design then you can find someone on PeoplePerHour fairly cheaply.

Mailchimp now has free automation (previously a paid feature) which means you can set up a program of emails to automatically send to your list at different times. So, when someone new signs up to your list they will receive a 'welcome series' from you on autopilot. It's an efficient way to generate sales and repeat traffic to your website.

TIP: Just a quick tip on your regular broadcasts to help you gain an extra 20%+ opens. When you've sent out a broadcast, replicate it and resend to the non-opens a couple of days later with a new subject line. You will find it hit more eyeballs and you'll get better results.

Best of luck

Matt

 

[BTON Agency]

Cheers for the advice, All good stuff.

Problem i have is my database is only circa 200 i really need 2000 plus. Not sure if its worth the punt but maybe worth a couple hundred quid to satisfy my curiosity.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Problem i have is my database is only circa 200 i really need 2000 plus

Instead of trying to buy up your list, is there any scope to grow it organically, yourself? Everything I've ever read on building a good email list talks about releasing really good content on a regular basis. That's obviously simplified and cannot necessarily be universalised, but if you have a following you gained yourself of loyal listeners/readers, you don't need to worry about how clean it is...

 

[WebshopMechanic]

1000 True Fans - Read this - http://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

This is how you should grow your business. You can't shortcut growth and loyalty.

If you want a stable business with loyal customers then you need to start small and prove you're of value. They will then do your marketing for you and the rest will take care of itself.

 

[webgeek]

Have you considered Green Rope or a similar low cost marketing automation solution?

Build your templates, sequence them into campaigns, then drip them out to people automagically.

By doing it using marketing automation software, you can add people to the list and know that they'll receive the full sequence of messages, from the beginning.

 

[SALESSALESSALESSALES]

Never buy lists
Never buy lists
Never buy lists

 

[Mike_Cartwright]

I agree with a lot of comments here. I wouldn't recommend that you buy a list. It's not really reliable and to be honest, it can be a waste of money.

Grow your own list. There are a lot of ways to do that today. It may take some time but it is definitely worth the effort and the wait.

Mailchimp is great, but I suggest you also check other software like GetResponse or even HubSpot. They offer free trials and find out what works best for your needs.

 

[webgeek]

If you're doing B2B, mining LinkedIn seems to be quite popular now. For B2C, it seems the cheap PPC to content giveway (upon them submitting email address) is still probably the quickest method.

Organic SEO with content giveaway is usually the most long-term cost effective, but it takes time and effort.

 

[kev598]

I also prefer mailchimp for such kind of stuff. Cost effective? hm. I think you would rather use some platform than try to find cheap but unprofessional developer.