What NOT to Do When Marketing With Email
What NOT to Do When Marketing With Email
Use it wisely and your business will prosper; use it the wrong way, and kiss your business goodbye!
We'll do the "thou shalt nots" this month, and then in the following three months, we'll look at ways to do it right.
Here's the golden rule of e-mail marketing: NEVER EVER SPAM.
Spam, as you probably know, is sending unwanted junk bulk e-mail. First of all, it just doesn't work. You don't shortcut to riches by buying a list of thousands, or even millions, of people who don't want to hear from you.
Smart people filter out the spam and never see it anyway. Vengeful people will shut down your account and leave you without e-mail.
Response rates are abysmal, and the negative impact on your business image can be very high--you might even find yourself on some blacklist websites urging people not to do business with you.
What else shouldn't you do? In most cases, avoid paying to participate in opt-in lists, even if you're sure they really opted in. They're just not targeted enough!
I'd make an exception if you can match your offer very closely to the audience. But for some reason, unlike the postal direct mail industry, email list brokers haven't figured out that the best lists are very specifically targeted. If you're mailing postally, you may be able to buy a list of people who've bought multiple cruises to the Caribbean--but e-mail lists might segment only as far as visitors to a travel website--and you don't know if they're doing backpacks and hostels or $500 per night hotels.
Add to that the number of people who set up new email accounts just to get the freebies offered to join the opt-in list, and it's not surprising that results tend to be disappointing.
Similarly, I wouldn't recommend a generic ad campaign on the big listhost sites (Topica and Yahoogroups) unless they can guarantee you accurate and careful targeting.
What NOT to Do When Marketing With Email - To learn more about this author, visit Shel Horowitz's Website.
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E-mail is one of the most powerful marketing inventions ever created, but also one of the most misused.
Use it wisely and your business will prosper; use it the wrong way, and kiss your business goodbye!
We'll do the "thou shalt nots" this month, and then in the following three months, we'll look at ways to do it right.
Here's the golden rule of e-mail marketing: NEVER EVER SPAM.
Spam, as you probably know, is sending unwanted junk bulk e-mail. First of all, it just doesn't work. You don't shortcut to riches by buying a list of thousands, or even millions, of people who don't want to hear from you.
Smart people filter out the spam and never see it anyway. Vengeful people will shut down your account and leave you without e-mail.
Response rates are abysmal, and the negative impact on your business image can be very high--you might even find yourself on some blacklist websites urging people not to do business with you.
What else shouldn't you do? In most cases, avoid paying to participate in opt-in lists, even if you're sure they really opted in. They're just not targeted enough!
I'd make an exception if you can match your offer very closely to the audience. But for some reason, unlike the postal direct mail industry, email list brokers haven't figured out that the best lists are very specifically targeted. If you're mailing postally, you may be able to buy a list of people who've bought multiple cruises to the Caribbean--but e-mail lists might segment only as far as visitors to a travel website--and you don't know if they're doing backpacks and hostels or $500 per night hotels.
Add to that the number of people who set up new email accounts just to get the freebies offered to join the opt-in list, and it's not surprising that results tend to be disappointing.
Similarly, I wouldn't recommend a generic ad campaign on the big listhost sites (Topica and Yahoogroups) unless they can guarantee you accurate and careful targeting.
What NOT to Do When Marketing With Email - To learn more about this author, visit Shel Horowitz's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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