If you run a website and collect email contacts, chances are you’ve noticed that the more clients and contacts you obtain, the more difficult it can be to manage them all. Email list building is key to building a profitable brand/online business. Having a good Email Service is a must.
My number one tips for new blogger who want to sell products or build a thriving community of followers: You MUST focus on capturing email addresses and providing relevant content to your list. This is how we build a thriving audience.
Organizing and managing your email contacts is extremely important if you want to efficiently manage your relationships with readers and quickly connect with your audience about products and opportunities. Below are the top 5 things you should look for in an email provider; if your provider has the following characteristics, you will be set up for your success and help you to manage your contacts in the best possible way.
Filtering and Segmentation
You should be able to filter your email by contact type and create lists. If you want to look at all the correspondence regarding one certain project, a certain client, or all of your orders to a certain vendor, you need to be able to somehow sort and filter your email by contact. This is a feature that should be standard in all email marketing and management systems. It’s not. You must do your research. As your list grows, segmentation becomes more and more important.
Ease of Use
The bottom line is that if you can’t figure out how to use the service it will be of no use. Take advantage of the 30 day trials that many providers offer to make sure that you are comfortable using the service you are considering. Do your research online to find out what providers offer Drag and Drop templates and other features that make setting up emails easier.
Deliverability
Deliverability is how successful an email provider is at getting emails to actually arrive in inboxes. All email providers are not created equal in this regard. Some have a better reputation than others and you have to do your research. Most major providers offer info on their deliverability rates online. Also, tracking within individual accounts is standard for most email providers, but not all of them show things like how many of your emails were marked “spam”. Spam reports can also affect deliverability for your account, so you want to have access to that information.
Cost
Email providers charge based on a number of different factors, most notability the services they provide. Take your time and comb through the pricing information so that you understand what you are paying for. The cheapest option is not always the best. If you don’t choose an email provider you can grow with, you will likely have to switch to a new provider after your list has grown… due to cost, lack of features, deliverablity.
Ready for Mobile
You want to ensure that your emails are optimized for mobile use and various screen sizes, so that those reading your emails on their mobile device will be able to view it in an efficient manner.
Creatively Inclined
If you have a text-only email provider, it’s time to upgrade. You should be able to create very compelling and visually engaging emails with HTML. This feature should go beyond clipart to things like templates for holidays, sign up forms, surveys, links to video and similar abilities. Some providers even offer photos that you can use as part of your messages.
Quality of Contacts Ensured
You don’t want to send emails over and over to addresses which have either opted out of your emails by clicking “unsubscribe” or have invalid email addresses. A good email service provider will check your contact list against unsubscribe requests, and will also track the bounce rate, or rate indicating the times an email has been kicked back, and allow you to remove invalid email addresses from the list. Also, be aware that some email providers may count duplicate email address as multiple records. That means you could be charged twice for an email address that is on two different lists in your account. Find out the details on how any potential provider would handle issues like this.
Overall, your email service provider should allow you to efficiently manage your email list, track which contacts don’t want to, or can’t, receive your emails, and help you to create the best content possible. After all, the point of the email is to be read, so ensuring that it can be ready with ease and accuracy is a vital tool for an email service provider to have. By following points above, you should be able to find an email provider up to the job.
PS: I personally use Aweber to manage my email list of over 80,000 contacts.
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