• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 26, 2015

The barrage of emails in consumer in-boxes force many to press the delete button after reading the subject line. L.A.-based ad agency LazBro and email-acquisition firm Opt-Intelligence have built a platform for IBM Silverpop clients that provides an opt-in feature targeting emails to consumers who interact with the brand, even for the first time.

LazBro and Opt-Intelligence dubbed the feature Grow My List. The companies describe it as an "email list growth tool." It sits in LazBro's Email Playground platform. It may sound a bit quirky, but Craig Anderson, president and COO of Opt-Intelligence, believes it provides a different way to acquire new email subscribers. Loren McDonald -- VP of industry relations at Silverpop, an IBM company -- agrees.

McDonald explains that without an email address, marketers are limited in the ways they can interact with consumers. By offering different ways that prospective consumers can subscribe, rather than the traditional newsletter sign-up, they are more likely to interact with that brand.

Opt-Intelligence typically builds sign-up lists from third-party Web sites and mobile apps. Anderson says that if someone signs up for a newsletter or makes a purchase on the Travel and Leisure Web site, the Thank You page will have an invitation to sign-up for email alerts from another brand in the exchange.

"The majority of our advertisers pay between $1 and $3 for an email subscriber," Anderson says. "These subscribers tend to open the 'Welcome' email at a rate more than 35%. Benchmark that against the email marketing industry average, and it tends to outperform organic acquisition rates from a company's Web site. "

Opt-Intelligence has a decent track record even without LazBro, which provides digital marketing service from lead generation to search engine marketing, and mobile marketing. While Traditions 118 Founder Mike Lubic doesn't use Grow My List, he does work with the company's email lead generation tools. He accomplished a goal to generate 100 new email subscribers monthly through the company's weekly newsletter in March 2014. He wanted email to bring in new customers to the restaurant, and not just provide a way to distribute coupons to existing ones.

The open rate on the auto-responder "Welcome" email sits at about 35%, and the new subscribers are opening and clicking on subsequent emails at a higher rate than in-restaurant sign-ups.  More than 18% of new subscribers have redeemed the first coupon.