Tactics: Email |
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Inbound email is the process of buying into existing
third-party email lists that are available through brokers or
directly from web properties. They can be text, html or a
combination of both, and they can be either standalone, where
you own the entire message, or sponsored, where you get three or
four lines of text and a linking URL or you get to place a
sponsorship graphic. The goal of using inbound email is to
attract new customers who have yet to visit (acquisition tool)
and convince existing customers to come back to the site
(retention tool).
Outbound email is a system that is put in place on the site
side, within a client’s existing data structure or hosted and
run by an Application Service Provider (ASP) in conjunction with
our efforts. This is the system that can manage interactions
between clients and customers who have agreed to opt-in to
receive ongoing information, or specifically targeted
information, from the client. All site content and all external
online media creative should be pointing people to this system
and directing people to become active participants in a customer
relationship management dialogue.
Some of the same thinking that goes into purchasing Inbound
email products applies when we set up an Outbound email
marketing program. The lists have to be segmented, registration
data and other criteria have to be established, multiple lists
have to undergo a merge-purge process to weed out duplicates,
and decisions have to be made as to the level of text messages
needed vs. html messages, and so forth.
