Email & Coffee

List management is not just for data geeks. Your subscriber list is as important as your P&L statement. So why aren't you allocating appropriate time to your existing and future contact list?

Your website has a Contact Us page, doesn't it? That's a great beginning, but let's kick it up a notch.

You are no doubt bringing in prospects using one of many strategies:

• Prominent telephone number(s) and physical address(es)
• Email address(es) that allow prospects to send emails to your business
• Submission form that sends a text based email to a specific email address
• Chat-based internet tool

Certainly these prospects become entries into your CRM. That's Customer Relationship Management. And that's a list management tool. For large companies this is a no-brainer, but for small-sized businesses, this project may be the umteenth item on your ToDo list.

Here's List Management 101 for small-businesses, and I'll make it really simple for you. Use your ESP. If you don't have one, run out and get one!

Every single email service provider (ESP) comes with a basic tool. The contact list. The list is configurable with some standard fields, like email address, and customizable fields that allow you to gather data ad infinitum. But that's not all. With the contact list comes a sign-up form. The sign-up form automatically places names into your list which generates a welcome message to your prospect. The sign-up form can also be set up to send a notification email to your own organization, alerting you to the lead.

Let's review. You've created a subscription list with custom fields that helps you best qualify your prospects. The subscription tool will then allow you to copy the HTML sign-up form to the Contact Us page at your website. When you publish this page to the 'net, you have created a simplistic CRM that automatically records every prospect that submits the web form, sends a thoughtfully prepared welcome message to the prospect and notifies someone in your business of your lead.

Put this concept on steroids and you can gather contacts for more specific purposes, even distribute whitepapers, spec sheets and registration forms. For a marginal monthly fee, an ESP can provide you with some very affordable solutions.