Does Size Really Matter?

By Larry Bailin, Single Throw CEO

“Mommy, where do customers come from?” is not the only question I can answer. Here's another one: “Does size really matter?” The answer—of course! At least it does when it comes to email marketing, but perhaps not in the way you think.

Email has become the communication method of choice by Internet users. It's fast, it's easy, and it just plain works. Likewise, Email marketing has also become the method of choice for businesses to reach existing and potential clients. Email marketing has measurable, average click through rates of 5 to 15% as compared to paper-based campaigns, which receive a 1 – 2% response rate. When you look at the numbers, it's no wonder the business world is embracing email as a staple in their marketing arsenal!

If you are not using email marketing in your business, you're doing yourself—and your business—a disservice. Take a look at the following statistics:

Permission-based email is far and away the preferred method of online communication for consumers. 75% rated it as their preference, with only 25% preferring postal mail and 0% choosing telemarketing.
Permission-based email motivates consumers to purchase: 78% of online shoppers have purchased as the result of clicking on an email link.
54% of small businesses surveyed rated e-mail as the top online promotion to drive site visitors and customers to their web sites.
Seventy-five percent of executives say that email was their primary source of business information in 2005.

Although email is a tool all businesses should embrace, it is not without its pitfalls. An ill-conceived email marketing campaign can have very real and lasting repercussions. Just like anything else in marketing, you have to plan and execute properly in order to achieve success. Just because sending email is an easy thing to do does not mean it should be done without first creating a proper foundation.

You're probably wondering where “size matters” fits into the equation. Well, being the CEO of a company that provides email marketing as one if its primary services, I get a pretty good picture of my client's frame of mind at the onset of a project. Most of my clients look at email marketing just as they would look at direct mail—the more physical addresses you have to send your mailer to (i.e. the “size” of your mailing list), the better your chances of success. This strategy works for direct mail because of the “numbers game” mentality of it; the more mail you send out, the more you increase your chances of success and a return on your investment. In direct mail, if you get a 1% response, you're doing well; a 2% response will get someone a raise and perhaps a promotion. On the other hand, a “size matters” mentality in email marketing is a flawed frame of mind.

In actuality, you want a smaller mailing list when it comes to your email marketing campaign. Let me elaborate a little. With SPAM laws now in place, it is not in your best interest to send bulk email to people. Not only will you make a bad impression by sending email to people that do not want it, you'll risk having restrictions put on you by servers and search engines that have protocols in place to protect against SPAM campaigns. Instead, for email marketing you want the most accurate and cleanest list possible and this means less is more .

Most people try to feverishly gather up as many email addresses as they can. They take them from websites, personal contact lists, basically anywhere and everywhere, and end up sending solicitations to people that do not want what is being offered. Where is the value in that? An email marketing list with fewer and more qualified email addresses, however, is always preferable to a large list of non-qualified and non-relevant email addresses because the people on the list have indicated their interest in the product or service that is being offered. Thus, you are targeting potential customers with purchase intent!

A clean “opt-in” list is worth its weight in gold. When you can create a list of people that want to receive your information your chances of success are huge. My clients routinely see a 17 – 20% response rate because we encourage them to build a good quality list. This list may take longer to generate, but in the long run the benefits are well worth the wait. Our system does not charge based on the amount of emails sent, but on the size of the list. This is just another way to express the cost savings of developing a smaller but more targeted list of potential and existing customers.

Did you know that if someone opts out of your email program it is unlawful for you to put that person back on the list – ever! Why risk losing a potential customer forever?

So the next time someone asks if size really matters, grin and say, “Yes, it sure does.”