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MARKETSTORM NEWS AND ARTICLES
EMAIL MARKETING - SPAM FREE.
by Duncan McAdams
Many people have asked us about spam, junk email or straight
advertising your business online - here's what we think…
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IS NOT SACRED
Having an email address is like having a mail box at home. You can
place a sign on your mailbox requesting that junk mail not be delivered
or install an email filter, but from time to time, you most likely
will get some. If you own a Hotmail account you will get
even more junk mail.
Most of this junk mail or SPAM comes from web sites you have visited
and given your email address to, commonly known as "opting
in", or by printing your email address on business cards, letterheads
or placed on your own web site. This means you are broadcasting
that you wish to be contacted by people, so you will have to accept
spamming as part of life on the internet.
EXPOSING YOURSELF
As soon as you send an email to someone and they send or forward
your message to someone new your email address is exposed. In some
cases you may be part of a long list of email addresses that someone
accidentally sends without hiding the addresses properly. The only
way to never receive spam or junk email is to never use your email
address - which defeats the purpose.
Also you may have a number of email addresses that are directed
to one computer or many email addresses that are directed to be
read by one email address - sound confusing? Here's an example that
we had to deal with…
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We send a regular newsletter to any email address we get
communication from - so if you email us you go straight on
our email list to receive our valuable tips and tricks on
marketing. If you don't wish to receive this newsletter then
you will be removed as soon as possible - no big deal. One
lady emailed us and was quite annoyed at how we received her
email address - we of course checked our database and could
not find her address anywhere. It turned out an employee of
hers had emailed us looking for work - we then sent back to
this email address one of our newsletters the following week.
Unbeknownst to us the lady was receiving all incoming emails
for her company and received our newsletter, so if you dig
a little deeper you will definitely find a tangled web.
Remember if you are getting emails you don't want make sure
you or your family or colleagues haven't "opted in"
on your behalf, or you don't have an old email address that
you have forgotten about that is receiving redirected emails.
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WHEN SPAM IS NOT SPAM
In business you really want people to contact you even though you
may receive some junk mail, spam or unwanted advertising. This again
is nothing to worry too much about - it can even be a learning experience
and teach you some great emailing tricks. Good companies will send
you an email newsletter with something of value rather than a simple
advert. They should also allow you to be "removed" from
the mailing list at any time.
WHERE DID WE GET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
Marketstorm as you would guess is heavily into marketing. We regularly
attend trade shows, networking meetings and seminars and so come
into contact with many people and businesses - this is our greatest
source of new email addresses for our database.
4 important things to remember about sending emails.
1. Emails are considered evidence in a court of law. So,
if you send out emails implying something along the lines that you
are going to kidnap me, for instance, then in court it will be perceived
as intent. This also goes for libel, (bad mouthing another person/business),
or if you use it for any form of criminal activity.
2. Keep all you email communications honest. Don't offer
anything, even for free, that you cannot honour. Your intention
should be to do good business and do it up front. You should be
able to contribute, make things happen, notify people of an upcoming
event, advise them of bargains you are offering or just give them
advice if they need it.
3. You and your business are just a minute part of an enormous
e-community and we all know that to make a community work and stay
harmonious we should all treat each other as we ourselves would
like to be treated.
4. With any type of Email Marketing, especially B2B, always
ensure you have an opt out option to enable the recipient to be
easily and swiftly removed from your mailing list and make certain
that they are promptly un-subscribed and never email them again
unless they request you to do so.
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SOME STATS
In a recent study of permission email by ITM Strategies the
following was observed:
- 48% were curious to read permission email
- 13% were eager to read permission email
- 30% were indifferent
- 7% opened it but were somewhat annoyed and
- 2% deleted it without reading
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Although in most countries spam is not necessarily illegal, most
people do not appreciate it. This means we have to put up with it
when we do get it, but there is nothing much to be gained by getting
on your high horse and carrying on about it - I've never met anyone
swear profusely over junk mail in the snail mail box. You only need
a delete button…
Marketing via email is here to stay and yes spam is annoying and
will be detrimental to your sales anyway - so don't do it. Don't
rule out email marketing or permission based marketing as it is
sometimes known - call us today (ph: 360 2095) to talk about
your next campaign.
If you do get plenty of "removes" on your mail outs don't
take it personally just gracefully accept it and delete them from
your database ASAP. If you get stroppy emails - most of the time,
from our experience, we have big troubles locating their exact email
address or there is some other reason. Don't take this to heart,
be cool and solve the problem and if you are good with people you will end up
with a buddy instead of an enemy.
Another thing is to react promptly to a complain and explain that you are not into spamming and you got their email address legitimately from a business card, web site or business networking opportunity. You must then ensure you ask permission on the very first contact and don't email a banana grower about your latest lcurtain design, why would they care? - they are much more interested in a better designed banana box for storage or the latest banana bug treatment.
Use your common sense, be polite and have your recipient's best interests in mind.
Email us as much as you
want!
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