E-mail is the consistently most popular and most-used application on the Web. People who do almost nothing else use e-mail regularly. E-mail is also one of the most powerful tools that you have for creating relationships with your customers.
Consider what Staples, the Office Products Company, does in this area. Staples sends out regular e-mails, to folks who signed up for it, alerting them to specialized sales or special offers. They're not the only people doing this. Lots of consumer product sites like CD Now and Amazon do the same thing.
The e-mails include a link that take the customer or prospect to a part of your site where they find the information you're touting.
The principle is really simple. You ask people what kinds of things they're interested in. You can make this easy for yourself and them by giving them a finite list of possibilities. Then, you alert them when there's something special in this area. It might be news, or a special sale.
Making It Work
The key to making this work is first getting permission to send people things. Usually that's best when they can see a specific benefit to doing that. Time saving is one big one. With the e-mail alerts, they don't have to check out your site every couple of days.
When you send folks an e-mail, make sure it's got a legitimate benefit in it. Don't send e-mail just to send it, and don't send it on a schedule that's regular unless that's part of the benefit.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 30 July 2002
This is only one Big Idea. You'll find more in Wally's book, What's the Big Idea? and in his Big Idea column. There's a complete list on the Main Big Idea page. You may also order the book by clicking here.
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