Is e-mail appending a great way to build your list, or is it a disaster waiting to happen?
It depends on who you ask.
Phyliss Mosca, vice president of marketing for plus-size women’s apparel cataloger Ulla Popken USA, said her company used appending as a way to build its e-mail file. Web sales account for 40% of the catalog’s business.
The initial results were disappointing, but they slowly improved, Mosca said during a session at the recent American Catalog Conference in Chicago. After about six months, the appending initiative paid for itself in net sales.
Jere Doyle, president/CEO of e-mail firm Prospective Direct, said he doesn’t like e-mail appending because you can’t assume you have the permission to e-mail someone just because they’ve purchased through another channel. Recipients could perceive the communication as spam and report it to their ISP, leading to all future e-mails from your company getting blocked on their servers.
Mosca noted that the first e-mail to each appended address was always an immediate chance to opt out. Appending, she said, is a technique that
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