Enlist Email Marketing
By Tom Livingston and Larry Olsen
"Do you want to receive our newsletter?" Expect to see that option more often on Web sites.
Increasingly, Web site owners want the means to create an email list. And no wonder, an email list extends a Web site's reach, by reminding visitors about the site. When people voluntarily receive email, there's a chance they may read it. "It's a way to adjust to the new consumers—capture the people interested in your product and keep them up to date," says Omar Thameen, president of BIGLIST.com. (See this issue's "Spread the Word with Mailing Lists," by Alan Schwartz for more information on successful mailing list tactics.)
Once you've generated a list, you'll need help, even if your mailing list only boasts a few dozen names. Running an email list manually using Outlook or Eudora can quickly become a time-eating nuisance.
Fortunately, you can outsource what could be tedious email-list management to an array of hosting services. We looked closely at 11 hosting services, listed in Table 1. Prices vary, but all share a revulsion toward spam, and require lists to be voluntary.
Free Services
The cost of "free" is usually an ad or promotional blurb provided by the list service. Three services, eGroups.com, Topica.com, and ListBot.com, offer free list management. (ONElist, another free service, recently merged with eGroups.) For their services, eGroups and ListBot place an ad in your email. For $4.95 per month, you can use the eGroups service ad-free.
