Tourism Internet Marketing U

Establishing Your Private Tourism Mailing List

Now that you know why your tourism business should have a private mailing list, take it to the next level. Just as getting your customer’s permission before contacting them by e-mail is important with direct mail lists and publicly accessible lists, it’s also important for private mailing lists. After all, e-mail marketing is e-mail marketing.

With permission-based marketing, whether you are using a private list, a public list, or one that you acquired, is based on the concept that you asked for and received your e-mail recipient’s permission before contacting them. The key to building your private mailing list is built on that critical piece of information - the customer’s permission.

Unlike publicly accessible lists and lists that you acquire, where the permission is accepted by another party, you must be responsible for getting the customer’s permission yourself. You do that right on your website. All you need is a simple opt-in box and an autoresponder to send out the confirmation e-mail in order to acquire that second “yes”.

The confirmation e-mail is absolutely critical. It prevents third parties from entering someone else’s e-mail address in a diabolical attempt to flood your customer’s e-mail with unwanted mail or to get you in trouble for spam. Since the confirmation e-mail is sent to the e-mail address where your e-mail marketing correspondences will be sent, whoever confirms their subscription from that e-mail address is saying to you, “Yes, I signed up for your e-mail and now I want to continue receiving what you have to send me.”

The strength of your private mailing list is built on that permission. If the majority of your list is made up of subscribers who have not opted in to your e-mail communications then you do not have a strong list. Those people are not interested in what you have to offer. But if you have a list that is made up entirely of people who said “Yes, please contact me and keep sending me e-mails” then that is a strong permission-based list and you should guard it carefully. A small private mailing list can be much more profitable than a large publicly accessible list or an even larger one that you purchased or rented.

The surest way to gain a loyal customer base for your tourism business is to use your web site and other marketing communications to build your own private mailing list.

Ready to start a list of your own? Why not look into my Private Mail List Marketing webinar for further advice?

-Written by Susan Sweeney