THE ELECTRONIC LETTERSHOP: HOW TO USE E-MAIL FOR PROSPECTING
The growing availability of e-mail addresses being collected by firms
allows the creation of a new delivery mechanism, the electronic letter-
shop. Electronic mail can be sent quickly and inexpensively via an
interface with the Internet, both for prospecting and installed-based
marketing efforts.
Though e-mail-based solicitations will not immediately replace tradi-
tional direct mail, it does represent a new marketing channel that
cannot be ignored. On a daily basis, there are thousands of new users
getting online to the information superhighway via the Internet and
the various commercial online services. The electronic lettershop
will give you an inexpensive method of reaching these people with
targeted, e-mail solicitations. Here are several ideas to help you
prepare for using the electronic lettershop.
1. Allocate room in your internal customer database to store e-mail-
related elements: the name of the online service they use, and
their e-mail address. You need the name of the service to construct
a valid Internet address out of their service-specific e-mail
address. For example, Joe G on American Online would have an
Internet address of joeg@aol.com. You might want to establish one
character coding scheme to track the names of the major services,
including America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy, Delphi, eWorld,
GEnie, and the Internet. Depending on the service, e-mail addresses
range from six to 10 alpha numeric characters, including special
characters such as commas and periods. However, a pure Internet
address could get as long as 40 characters.
2. Ask your customers for the name of their online service and e-mail
address. (If you can, ask for both a primary and secondary service/
e-mail address combination.) Do this at all points of contact in-
cluding your registration card, customer service, sales department,
house file/upgrade mailing, outbound telesales, BBS system, etc.
If you are planning to revamp your registration card, employ tradi-
tional direct-marketing techniques to enhance the capture rate of
e-mail addresses, such as premiums and free offers.
3. Don't let the security issue thwart your efforts. Use the Internet
to generate phone calls to an 800 number to accept a credit card
order, avoiding any potential security problems.
4. As with any new medium, track and measure responses generated via
the Internet to evaluate performance. Perhaps a special 800 number
or a unique extension could be implemented for this specific pur-
pose. Inbound telemarketers on the receiving end of an Internet-
generated call should specifically ask customers for their e-mail
address (and the name of their online service) in association with
their U.S. mailing address.
5. Use an e-mail suppression file. By asking individuals ahead of
time if they want to receive commercial e-mail solicitations, you
will avoid being "flamed" (online talk for hate mail).
How it works: Prepare a text-based e-mail message, which an outside
agency would send to your installed base or to prospects from the
cooperative e-mail pool. Messaging would be sent overnight, reaching
its destination typically by the next morning. The e-mail suppression
file would be applied, eliminating those who do not want to receive
outside solicitations.
In conclusion, regardless of whether you're ready to use it immedi-
ately, you should take steps to start capturing e-mail address data
immediately.
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This resource is (c) 1996 by, and excerpted from,
The Catalog Marketer, a newsletter from Maxwell Sroge Publishing.
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