Putting a value on email subscribers

Arthur Hughes is an American marketing guru who has been around for a long time. He’s been to Australia, and some readers of The Scoop may have been lucky enough to hear him.

Hughes wrote the book on database marketing many years ago, but since the rise of the internet and the new media, he has reinvented himself.

Today, Arthur Hughes is senior strategist for the email marketing services provider e-Dialog, which is based in the small town of Burlington, near Boston, in the state of Massachusetts.

At a recent presentation, Hughes put forward some thoughtful ideas on acquiring email subscribers, including the following.

1. The first step is to find out what your email subscribers are worth. Without knowing their value, you don’t know whether the effort to acquire more is worthwhile.

2. For putting a value on subscribers, there are four important metrics that you need to be specific about:

•The value of online and offline orders generated from email;
•The costs of your email program;
•Gross profit generated from email subscribers; and
•Individual subscriber lifetime value.

These numbers are fundamental before you proceed.

3. Once you’ve decided that getting new email subscribers benefits the business, then Arthur Hughes suggests you consider the following:

> Promote email registration prominently throughout your site, including the checkout page.
> Explain why consumers should subscribe. Is it for free shipping on their next order, for the chance to receive ‘thought-leader’ white papers, express checkout, or what?
> Send triggered, personalised welcome messages as soon as consumers sign up for your email program.
> Reward your employees for email addresses collected.
> Reward your subscribers. Offer subscribers incentives such as special prices for them only, discount coupons, premiums, white papers and continuing benefits such as free shipping.
> If appropriate, upgrade your point-of-sale system to capture email addresses.
> Use surveys to solicit email addresses. The surveys can be about any subject — e.g. politics, economics, products, etc. — and are a good way to get email addresses in return for survey results.