Sadly we can’t add eBay or Amazon customers to our mailing lists (at least it’s illegal to do so, although it doesn’t seem to stop some companies). However if you’ve got a website you should definitely be building an email list and there’s absolutely nothing to stop you sending a single “Thank you” email to customers offering them the opportunity to opt in to future email marketing.
Often I hear “no one will sign up to emails”, but it does help if you frame the invite in an appealing manner. For instance “Click here to receive your exclusive offers and discounts” is much more likely to garner a sign up than “Sign up for our newsletter“.
Is email marketing dead and is everyone on social media? Don’t believe that for a minute! Email marketing (done correctly!) is still one of the most powerful way to get your message across. That’s why we all still receive so email marketing we didn’t sign up for (aka spam).
Here’s an infographic with data from Order Dynamics showing how good (or bad) some retailers are as well as the acceptance rate of consumers when they receive relevant enticing offers by email. If you’d like more information you can download the full Customer Relationships report from Order Dynamics
