Contact lists are the greatest boon and the biggest barrier to effective email marketing. On the plus side, if you have a list and send regularly, you'll keep in touch with customers and prospects. Then you'll be on their minds when they are ready to buy. But, on the down side, creating a list and keeping it current is a large, nasty task. It's taken some of my clients months to get their lists in order.

List Creation

Email marketing newbies often ask who to put on their lists. My answer: everyone who cares about you, your service or product. And that includes family and friends. You never know where a referral might come from. If your contact database includes older addresses, include them anyway. After your first mailing, you'll get some bounces. Then follow the process described in this article. But you'll also reach out to some long-lost friends.

The more information you have on a contact, the better. If you have the company name and cell phone number, you have a chance of finding them if their emails bounce later on. So always get as much data as you can.

Managing Bounces

If you use Constant Contact, after each mailing, you'll get a listing of emails that didn't make it to their intended destination. Though I manage mine with great care, I still lose 1.5% to 2% of the total mailing each month. First scan the list to discover obvious mistakes. Then check to see if it's the first time they've bounced. If so, mark them to review after the next mailing. Some problems solve themselves. But if an email bounces two or three times, you need to take action.

If you have a phone number, call it. Contact anyone you know who will know their email address for sure. I got two people back on my list last month by emailing their spouses. Failing that, try social media--LinkedIn and Facebook. Message them there. And if all else fails, remove them. There's no point in sending something month after month to a nonexistent address.

Want help creating your list or keeping it clean. Be in touch.

"Facebook makes me tired," said Berkshire photographer Scott Barrow the other day in a phone conversation. Facebook may make you tired, or frustrated, confused, angry or frightened. It makes me all of these things and more. But it's a force to be reckoned with. That's why Time magazine named its founder Mark Zuckerberg person of the year for 2010.

Facebook's seventh birthday was yesterday and it's fast approaching 600 million members. If it were a nation, it would be the third largest in the world--after China and India. One out of every dozen people on the planet is on Facebook. It accounts for one out of every four American page views. In a single day, about a billion new pieces of content are posted on the site.

And if that weren't enough, a movie about the phenomenon The Social Network won the Golden Globe best picture award and likely will take a few Oscars as well. If you haven't seen it, you should.

Why?

According to Time, "All social media involve a mixture of narcissism and voyeurism. Most of us display a combination of the two, which is why social media are flourishing faster and penetrating deeper than any other social development in memory." Online marketing maven Seth Goodin says it's all about followings. Find your tribe and provide what they need, and you'll flourish. 

Consider the case of US figure skater Ryan Bradley who wanted to retire after a disappointing Olympic season. But his fans on Facebook and Twitter said, "No." So he kept on skating and won the US men's championship last month.

Transformation

What was originally founded to enable college students to connect with others on campus has now become the go-to site for business. Everyone from the local movie theater to Starbucks has a Facebook page. And you should have one for your business, too. And so should I. But for now I'm just Susanna Opper on Facebook. Please friend me.

Love to hear your experiences with social media. Email me, and I'll share them in the March issue of Web Words.

Feedback
 

More On Us