Email Permissions – How To Get Them The Legal Way
When you send out campaigns to audiences, you need to know that you have their permission. Without permission, you could be breaking several email marketing laws. This can have severe repercussions. You could face a fine or have your email server blocked: either way your business will be financially worse off.
Instead, you need to be sure that you collect email permissions the legal way. Here are several things that you’ve got to do.
1. Be Transparent
The first thing that you need to do is to write content that, during the signup process, informs the audience of what to expect. This should include what content you’ll send them (sales/marketing/news/product updates), how often (once a day/week/month) and what information you will keep.
Providing this information not only informs the audience of what they can expect, it aligns itself with the strictest laws across the world.
2. Be Upfront
The information collected and the reason for collection must be presented before the audience agrees to subscribe to your mailing list. This means that the audience is informed about what they are subscribing too and there is no confusion.
An example of this point, and the first, is when newspapers have been fined for subscribing audiences on one pretence only to send other content. For instance, one paper was fined when it sent marketing content to thousands of users who had subscribed to receive the latest news from the site.
3. Double Optin
While not a legal requirement in all parts of the world, the double optin strategy is an effective way to ensure that audiences are subscribing to your mailing list. A double optin works by the subscriber confirming their permission to receive content through a confirmation link inserted in an email. This allows you to identify who has really confirmed their acceptance and gives you solid proof of that permission.
It can also protect your business. If you use a double optin strategy when you use lead magnets (free downloadables, email courses, etc.), you can be sure that someone is really giving you the correct email address before offering them the free gift. In addition, you can check that the email address is accurate with this strategy which will keep your email marketing list clean.
4. Don’t Send Marketing Content Until You Get Permission
Before permission is given by the subscriber, you should refrain from sending marketing or sales content to your audience. What constitutes as sales/marketing content can differ from country to country and even state to state. Therefore, it is best to only send content that is related to their subscription until you get confirmation.
If you haven’t got some permissions through the double optin solution, you can always send more confirmation emails to potential subscribers. You can do this up to three times before you have to give up. Ensure that the emails you’re sending out to those who haven’t confirmed don’t have any marketing materials. Perhaps include a line this this:
“We’ve noticed that you haven’t yet confirmed subscription to our mailing list, if you wish to do so please click here or if you would rather not, please let us know.”
You can include two links, one which will confirm subscription and one that will unsubscribe them.
Conclusion
Don’t be caught out by sending out marketing/sales content to subscribers who haven’t given you permission. And ensure that you’ve got permission to send the content you want to send them. They might give you permission for one set of content and not for another.
Follow the guidelines above to help.
How do you ensure that subscribers have given you permission? Do you use the double optin solution?
Let us know in the comments below.
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5 Ultimate Tips For Converting Visitors Into Subscribers
How to get more people to subscribe your business’ email list
Email marketing sells, there is no doubt about that. For the past decade, email marketing has topped the ROI of digital marketing channels. Therefore, small and large businesses should be investing a significant amount into email marketing.
The challenge is, that for you to sell via email you need subscribers, and this can be the most difficult aspect of email marketing. You can’t simply buy contacts for your email list. This is against several regulations across the world and can earn you a significant fine.
Buying email marketing lists is also highly unprofitable with many bought lists containing outdated, inaccurate or just plain made up data. Also, those records that are accurate are often uninterested in your products and will unsubscribe or rate your email server as spam that can affect long-term success.
Therefore, attracting website visitors to subscribe to your mailing list is the key to earning long-term success for your business. So here are five ultimate tips for converting visitors into subscribers.
1. Give The Subscriber Something For Their Information
One of the main things you should be doing for your website visitors is to ensure they are getting something for their contact details. This could be something like an ebook, online guide, free sample of your product, discount or perhaps daily news update.
When visitors think they are getting something for their contact information, they’re happier. It seems like a fair deal. If it’s a discount on products they’re already considering purchasing, it can seem like an even better deal.
2. Optimise Your Call-To-Action
Your call-to-action is the most important aspect of your email marketing subscription process. It needs to be visible on your website and have all the right words so it entices visitors to click on it to complete the process.
For placement, it’s better to locate the call-to-action button somewhere on the left-hand side of the screen. This has a higher chance of being spotted and acted on by visitors to your website.
In addition, you should ensure that your call-to-action is written so that it calls the visitor to act immediately and it should include a verb.
3. Have A Specific Landing Page
The best subscription rates happen when you have a landing page. This landing page should be dedicated to one offer and be geared to getting the visitor to click on the call-to-action to receive a reward for their time.
The biggest advantage of landing pages is that they can be really tailored to specific audiences and SEO keywords. Therefore, the more landing pages you have the higher the traffic to your website and the more subscribers you’ll attract.
4. Social Sharing
Don’t forget to get your visitors to share your landing pages, deals and downloadable content with their social media contacts. Every time your content is shared it creates a link back to your website that encourages others to visit your site and even better, helps improve your SEO.
Social media sharing also helps with trust factors, meaning buyers are more likely to purchase from you than to purchase from a competitor with no online reputation.
5. Pop-Ups
Whether you love them or hate them, there’s a reason why pop-ups or modular subscription pages are heavily used online; they convince people to subscribe to email lists. They can be activated on a number of conditions including: page entry, after so long on a page, or on page exit.
This can be really good for highlighting how useful your expertise is and for offering free content like downloadable guides. However, these methods can be annoying and there is some argument about whether Google penalises websites that use pop-ups for something that isn’t necessary (like cookie notifications).
Conclusion
Email marketing offers the best ROI of all digital channels and that’s why you need to build an email marketing list now. There are many ways you can build an email marketing list, but you should include at least some of the points we’ve mentioned above. This will not only convert more of your visitors into subscribers, but also help your business to grow its revenue organically.
What do you do to encourage visitors to subscribe? What has had the most success for your business?
Let us know in the comments below.
Image from Pixabay.
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Why Is Having A Newsletter Subscription Important?
Why is a newsletter subscription so important?
A newsletter subscription is one of the most valuable items you can have for your business. Yet despite the benefits of a list, many businesses don’t have one, this can be due to the effort to obtain one, or the fear of regulations such as GDPR.
Yet, with the correct processes in place, a newsletter subscription list can benefit your business significantly. Here are some of the key reasons why you need to have a newsletter subscription.
1. Email Sells
The biggest reason why you should have a newsletter subscription is that it offers a strong ROI. For every dollar you spend on your email marketing campaigns, you’ll get back $32. This return is amazing, and for the past decade and more, email marketing has offered the best return across the digital marketing platforms.
Even if you aren’t actively publishing selling mails, emails sell. They act as a touchpoint in the purchasing journey and when you need between five and twelve touchpoints, every email can help you sell quicker.
2. A Newsletter Subscription Adds Value To Your Business
If you’re considering selling your business at some point or looking for outside investment, the valuation you can place on your business can be higher if you have a strong subscription list. The main reason for this is that investors know that email marketing is lucrative and a strong list is a great way to generate revenue.
Therefore, the more people that are active on your newsletter subscription list, the more valuable that list is and the more valuable your business is. A quick calculation states that even at Fluttermail’s smallest package means a good email list is worth just under $30,000 to your business’ value.
3. You Can Sell Advertising Space On Your Newsletter
The more people you have on a newsletter subscription list, the greater the value of the newsletters you send out. If you aren’t selling products or services or perhaps would like to generate more revenue from your newsletters, you can sell advertising space to businesses.
Even a small advert on your newsletter can be worth $25 to $50 each. For those looking to make this a significant revenue stream, even a small e-newsletter is worth $60,000 to $80,000 a month. With other revenue options such as affiliate marketing, sponsored news and merchandising, an email newsletter can be a significant revenue earner.
4. You Can Inform Subscribers Of Important News
Whether your business is expanding, having a sale, or just got a new product, the newsletter is the perfect place to tell people this news. It will help you draw attention to your business’ news and make the most of it.
Many people have used email newsletters to keep subscribers up-to-date in regards to future developments to create excitement. This is a great way to ensure the first day of an event is a success and the perfect way to launch a new product, new business site or a crowdfunding campaign.
5. Emails Have Higher Levels Of Trust
One of the reasons why emails can do everything we’ve mentioned above is because they build trust with audiences. Newsletters can be used to demonstrate your team’s expert knowledge and why you’re the perfect supplier of the solution.
The more content you send to your audience, within reason, the more trust you will build with them. In fact, newsletters are a great trust builder and they should be sent at the same time every week.
6. Newsletters Can Set-up Expectations
Negative reviews are the biggest threat to your business’ success and one sure way to get a bad review is to fail to live up to expectations. Expectations are set by your marketing campaigns. What can happen is that a lack of information increases the expectations of your customers.
However, email campaigns can help you set realistic expectations. In fact, you’ll be able to under-promise and over-perform, giving you a chance to collect a lot of great reviews that will grow your business.
Conclusion
Email newsletters are a great way to build a business. They generate sales and build trust, giving you everything you need to grow a steady revenue stream for your business. But they are also important to your business’ valuation. Therefore, if you don’t have a newsletter subscription, you should start yours now.
What is keeping you from starting an email newsletter? Are you struggling to grow your subscription list?
Let us know in the comments below.
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