Who are you sending to?
Does your list measure up?
Divide and conquer

If you are like many organizations, you likely have an email list that has been collected over the years with the foresight that you will one day have an eNewsletter or some form of communication update system.

If you collected these email addresses properly through an opt-in system, then you’re already headed in the right direction. Most businesses, unfortunately, did not have access to proper opt-in tools before PIPEDA and CAN-SPAM requirements came into effect. That’s okay, eMarketers are setup to help you clean your lists and ensure compliance. Most will likely be able to do the work for you.

Like all contact information though, email addresses change as people switch jobs, email providers change ownership and a plethora of other possibilities. Before you start sending out a masterfully crafted eNewsletter - or any communication for that matter - you should first clean up your list, removing duplicates, obvious typos, etc., especially if your list hasn’t been used for some time.

Once your list is clean, there other considerations which can keep your readership growth steady and your recipients interested. The scope of your organization may be very broad. You may want to offer particular promotions to subgroups of your eNewsletter recipients. Perhaps you have different content and articles prepared for industry peers than for the public. The more you know about your readers and what you have to offer them, the more you can target your content, the greater the interest and thus the “open” and referral rates. The bottom line is that being interesting leads to having interested customers.

Perhaps by asking your readers for their interests when they subscribe, or using a survey in your next campaign, you can determine which content it is optimal for your recipients. If you find your readers divided, an approach you can take involves creating different email lists for different interest groups. Readers who signed up for news about Monster Trucks are unlikely to be interested in your knitting tips, even if both topics are areas in which your organization is involved. Rather than sending your complete eNewsletter to all subscribers, why not create separate eNewsletters and divide the content accordingly. By creating targeted content with your readers’ interests in mind, your overall “open” rates as well as referral rates should rise.

Even when topics are loosely related, they may still not be of interest to your entire list: (e.g. a music label with acts in several genres. Separating your list into interest groups should be a strong consideration, especially with larger opt-in lists and several areas. If you’ve been sending your eNewsletter for some time now and believe it is impractical to ask readers for interests at this point, you can use tracking results and click-thrus from successive campaigns and look for trends. Once you notice a pattern you can choose to divide your list accordingly or simply ask your eMarketing service to help you find a solution that is feasible for your organization.

Creating and sending to multiple email lists should be offered through your list management service/eMarketing company and when appropriate will be well worth your time and any added cost.