Questions

I had an eBay business for 3 years selling name brand footwear and clothing. Since then, I've been working on a coffee subscription business (new tricks to an old model) and received over 170 responses to a survey and 94% gave me their email address. As I explore other ways to gain more initial interest before launching, I realized Paypal collects all the emails of my past buyers and discovered I have over 5400 emails (though some are duplicates). What things should I keep in mind if I send an email to them letting them know about my new business?

First, review the contracts you had with eBay and PayPal to ensure that you are not violating any of their policies regarding contacting buyers. If doing so would violate a rule, absolutely do not contact them. It's not worth it.

However, if you can do so, here is my recommendation:

Practice "appreciation marketing." Send them a brief email to thank them for their past business (and remind them who you are and what you sold). Then ... offer them a coupon for your new business. Make it a nice offer, not just 5-10%. Be sure that they know how special they are.

I would then keep them as a separate list from your opt-in list (which has agreed to be contacted more regularly).

Use an email service that allows you to track open-rates and click-throughs. You might consider sending a follow-up to those people who open the email but do not click, and also a follow-up offer to those who actually clicked.

I am available to speak if you're interested in more. Either way, best of luck to you!


Answered 9 years ago

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