Confusing Technical Prowess With Good Internet Marketing

I’m always cautious when I start working with a person that “knows technology”.  There tends to be a belief that understanding technology automatically translates into expert email/online marketing.  These intiatives typically end up being on what webpagesthatsuck.com call “the bleeding edge”.  Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should

As a rule of thumb before implementing a high tech or new-to-you technoligy ask “How does this enhance or improve my message to my target audience.?”  If you can’t think of a relatively simple answer within five seconds, it’s probably worth rethinking.

Here’s an example I recently encountered.  A client said, “I’m pretty technically savvy.  I can get the images into my emails.”  When I asked what emails were included in the “image makeover” and why, I got a blank stare.  Finally the answer was, “to make it look better”.  I had two problems with that answer.  One the layout didn’t make anything look better and two”looking better” doesn’t help the recipient.  Had he said, “It drew attention to an offer.” or “It instills confidence that the company is legitimate through a professional branded layout.”, I’d have thought he was on to something.  Unfortunately, he had no good reason to ad an image that, in reality, had little or nothing to do with the email’s content and made it look less professional.

Same thing goes for newer technology.  If there is no useful and interesting content that can be updated on at least a semi-regular basis, don’t start a blog.  If time and energy can’t be put into doing a professional video segment, don’t do a video podcast.  And never use a piece of technology because “it’s the next big thing.”  Keep it simple and useful and there will always be an audience.  Anything else will end up being overly complicated, useless, ignored, and potentially damaging to you or your company.

Email Marketing is for the Long-Term

With the economy sagging many people are looking to email/online marketing as a way to open new opportunities for them or their companies.  Of course, that’s something I love to hear!  However, in the case of email marketing I’m noticing a disturbing trend.  I’m calling it “The Down Economy Panic”.  People who have lost some clients or feel that their existing base is shrinking are desperately trying to use email marketing for added exposure.  No long-term plan is put in place and the only ground work laid is for an immediate send.  These short sighted email marketing attempts almost always fall flat and waste valuable time and money while providing limited results.

I remain a proponent that “email blasts” don’t work.  This can be  a one-time large promotional send from either a rented/bought list or a dormant in-house  list.  It’s the same thing really.  The explanation I’m recently hearing is “I need to send out now to prop myself up over the downturn.  If I do an ongoing campaign the economy might be righted by the time I’m in full swing and I won’t need it.”

If that’s the line of thinking, save yourself the trouble, don’t get started.  You’re just creating one more selfish SPAM message.  We have plenty of those to go around!  If there is no commitment to an ongoing campaign that provides value to recipients and then drives sales or leads, it’s a waste of time and money.

For those people that want to use it as a method to generate new business and feel that it can be a valuable vehicle down the road, despite the market conditions, go for it!  That is the mindset that will reap rewards.

Anyone trying to do a short-term marketing email to solve their current losses are likely to find another loss in a wasted marketing effort.

Email marketing is a great way to communicate with potential clients but only if done appropriately.  It will surely help bring new opportunities during a down economy.  However, it needs to be designed in an ongoing way that will provide opportunities in any market condition.

Deciding on an Email Service

There are many email services that allow you to import your lists, layout emails, send, and run reports.  People often ask what service to use.  I’ll refrain from giving out company names because my answer is often different depending on client needs.

These services always charge in one of two ways.  It’s either a fee based on the amount of people in your list or a per email cost.  The price always scales.  So you pay less per person or per email as your quantity goes up.  I have found that all the main stream services you find online are reliable.  So often the service they offer at the price they offer is the biggest concern.  Typically, it breaks down like this.  If you are going to be sending frequently (at least once a month), it often makes sense to use the service that bills by the number of people in the list.  The only time this isn’t true is when the list is full of junk data.  This is a problem in and of itself but from a pricing standpoint it causes you to pay a higher price while not getting your message delivered.  If you are sending infrequently (sometimes once a month or less) then often the by email service is more appropriate.  Pricing tends to fluctuate between 5 and 1 cent an email, based on contract length and number of people.  This is an advantage to pricing by list when you have quarterly announcement or infrequent promotions. 

Other folks find small companies or affiliate services that offer an inexpensive email delivery system.  Others have an in-house database that allows for mass email sends.  My suggestion on both is to avoid them.  Both solutions have one major flaw.  They aren’t working to protect their sending rights.  Almost all of these services are blacklisted by major ISP’s, meaning people don’t get your emails.  The single greatest benefit to using a mainstream email service is that they work with ISP’s to maintain high rates of delivery.  Most small services and all in house services don’t.  I recently encountered a small affiliate email marketing service that was blocked by hotmail, yahoo, and AOL.  They were Gmail away from being blocked from all the big four.  I also once encountered an in-house database that had all email from a company registered as SPAM.  They were using their own site and servers to deliver the messages (which slowed all online activity) and due to a handful of SPAM complaints they were blacklisted.  They discovered the problem when their customer service emails weren’t received by customers.  The emails were being put in SPAM filters or blocked all together. 

It’s a lot of unnecessary work to save a little money.  Don’t run the risk of paying for something that isn’t providing the service advertised.  As it is with many cases, you get what you pay for.  If a service is unbelievably cheap it means they aren’t doing the back end work.  In email marketing shortcuts usually mean your message won’t be delivered.  Worse yet don’t inhibit the entire company’s ability to communicate via email  by using an untested in-house solution. 

So what service is right for you?  A reliable mainstream service is right for everyone.  From there, break down how many emails you plan on sending and how many people you send it to.  Most of the time you’ll find that the less than a month frequency trends toward a by email payment structure and once month or more frequency trends toward a by contact list payment structure. 

Need more help in setting up or running an email campaign? Call me (412.417.2309) and we can construct an ideal matrix for your company or organization.

– Eric
eMarketing Innovation

Temper Fears and Overreaction During an Email Marketing Campaign

If you are running an email marketing campaign you will get an angry email or spam report every so often.  It’s unavoidable.  Even the best campaigns with the most stringent regulations on avoiding being identified as SPAM get them.  Don’t take the messages personally, it’s not an attack on you as a person.  If you’re running a responsible email campaign it’s usually either  a misunderstanding, forgetfullness, or laziness that results in the SPAM reports or unhappy email.

Misunderstandings and forgetfulness are the most common.  People just don’t remember asking for the email or accidently move it to a SPAM folder or report.  The action item here is to ensure that you were clear on what they would get.  As an example, some companies will have a jar for business cards at an event to win a prize.  They never actually tell people that they will start sending them a company newsletter when they submit their name.  While I think having an opt-in list at an event is a great idea, not being direct about opting them in to an email list risks getting angry replies and SPAM reports.  There’s no reason not to let people know that you’d like to send them email newsletters and updates. Let them say no to begin with, this just keeps us from wasting time getting communications to people who don’t want it. 

However, I have witnessed upset recipients that knew exactly what they were opting in for.  They just forgot, or decided they didn’t want it between signing up and receiving the email.  Either way, they carry the blame.  The most blatant and confusing example I’ve seen of this was someone that had signed up for a double opt in list (meaning he proactively put in his information, received an email saying, “We received your request, please click to confirm you want it.”)  The emails he received were newsletter content and not overly advertising driven.  Upon receiving the third email 6 weeks after signing up he wrote an angry email demanding to be removed and threatening legal action.  This is simply a case of someone looking to lash out.  While this is an extreme case, it’s going to happen.  Don’t start second guessing your campaign based on these random reactions.  If you are following CAN-SPAM compliance and offering communications that the vast majority of your audience is pleased to receive, the problem is with the recipient, not your messages. 

Of course, it’s not wise to communicate that to the angry individual.  The best policy is to get them off the list and apologize if necessary.  Only 1 person in a hundred will want more than to be removed and I’ve never seen that one person demand more than a short apology.  Even the man above was satisfied with being removed and was not a problem beyond that.

The other group is the lazy group.  Unfortunately, many people don’t really understand what SPAM is.  They think any message from someone they don’t personally know is SPAM.  Of course everyone has the right to unsubscribe from a campaign if they no longer get value out of it.  The problem is that some ISP’s make it too easy to lodge a SPAM complaint.  AOL users account for a much larger percentage of SPAM complaints than other email users because the service actually makes it easier to log a SPAM complaint than to use most unsubscribe mechanisms.  This is just a sad combination of ignorance and laziness.  Again it isn’t a true reflection on what the campaign is offering, it’s just a matter of poor circumstances coming together to give a negative impression.

The point is, don’t overreact to these negative influences.  They will happen no matter how responsible you are.  One angry person can put a negative feeling on your email marketing.  Remember if the vast majority are happy, it’s probably a case of circumstances working against you in some way.  Don’t take it personally and continue growing and developing your campaign.  In the end, it’s hard to blame people.  I find myself getting upset if I have to sort through SPAM.  In fact, today I accidentally marked a legitimate comment as SPAM on my blog because I had 370 SPAM messages.  It was an honest mistake and not a true reflection on the poster or my feelings toward the poster.  Did I go back and remove my SPAM tag?  Yes, but many people you send to don’t have the time or technical knowledge to do so.  Certainly you always have to gauge the reaction to your email marketing and should see a majority of happy recipients.  If that’s the case don’t overreact or get demotivated by the vocal or ignorant detractors.  They’ve probably either made a mistake or simply forgotten the reason to get your email.  They won’t be scarred by the experience and will certainly move on, be sure you do too.

Getting Started With Email Marketing

A common question I receive is how do I get started with email marketing.  Here’s why I love that question (and it’s not because of the obvious answer of me shouting “Hire Me!”).  I like the questions because it is being asked.  So many individuals or organizations never really consider the question.  Here’s some ideas on weighing your options.

How much time, money, and effort are you willing to invest?  If you have a budget and will make time to meet with consultants or email marketing professionals, that typically nets the best results fastest.  There are experts that deal day in and day out with getting the best campaigns they can.  Depending on the size of your budget you can hire large marketing firms, smaller specialzed firms, or independent consultants/freelancers.  Typically the budgets necessary will slide from large to small based on the size of the firm mostly because of the manpower it puts at your disposal.  So if you have a campaign that needs constructed quickly and have a large budget to facilitate it, a large firm is the best bet.  Smaller budget and more time might lend itself to  a smaller firm or individual.  I’ll skip the email marketing commercial here and move on to options outside hiring someone.

The first step is deciding to invest the time to do a campaign.  Think carefully about the answer.  Many times people are better off spending money rather than doing it themselves because they get frustrated and quit or it’s an inefficient use of their time.  If you still believe that’s your best or only bet (no budget for it), than reading is vital.  If you’re reading this you’ve already found one great source of information, the internet.  Do searches and gather some tips and best practices.  Make sure you get some good ideas on all aspects of email marketing, from legal requirements, layout, design, consistency, list building, and content.  The bookstore or library will also have many books on  constructing campaigns.

After crafting a plan that makes sense, get started.  I highly recommend having at least $20 a month available to sign up for an email marketing service.  They’ll provide all legal requirements and usually some templates to get started.  Once you have your target audience in the system and the emails constructed you’re ready to roll.

From this point on it’s really about watching the reports and responses and refining your campaign.  Always look for ways to improve and test changes out to see if they help or hurt your responses.  Do get more sophisticated by making custom layouts and unique content.  Once you start developing good interactions it starts becoming a problem to use “standard templates” or “borowed content”.

A couple words of warning whether you try email marketing yourself or hire someone.  Make sure you want to invest time, money, and/or energy.  Too often people hear that email is “cheap” and effective and they dive in without thinking things through.  A good campaign can be much less expensive than other marketing media, but anything of quality is never “cheap”.  The cost will come in dollars and/or sweat.  If you don’t hire someone and don’t put the sweat in you’ll have a “cheap” campaign that, at best, hurts your business or organizations relationship or, at worst, faces legal action.  If you’re going to do a campaign, commit to it.  Otherwise you’ll get frustrated and quit.  If you’re not in it for at least several months, don’t get started.  It will only waste time , energy, and/or money.

Patience is Required For Effective Email Marketing

The immediacy in email marketing is a blessing and a curse.  The blessing is how quickly and relatively easily communications can be delivered.  The curse is also how quickly and relatively easily communications can be delivered.  Why?  It means that there is always a temptation to “do it now!”  Any business or marketing panic can result in a poorly planned or ill advised communication due to the ease of sending.  This is the most common abuse of an email list.  Companies aren’t setting out to be evil spammers, they have an objective they aren’t reaching and think they can make up ground on the fly.  Don’t be tempted to send a last minute promotion.  It rarely works because the window for effectiveness has already passed.

So what kinds of panic get manifested in email marketing?  Here are some common ones.  We aren’t meeting projected sales, blast out an email promoting this product for a surge in sales.  We need to show more site traffic, let’s do a quick email update to get people to click through to the site.  We don’t have enough attendees for our event, let’s resend the invitation.  The list goes on but these all have the same root cause, panic at a goal not being met.  While missing a goal is often frustrating, impromptu email communications rarely net results and frequently cause animosity from subscribers.

If email marketing was as easy as blasting out a promotion and waiting for the dollars to roll in, everyone would be successful.  The fact is that it, like any marketing campaign, takes thought and finesse.  Thought and finesse doesn’t spawn from panic.  Mistakes do.  The best email campaigns let subscribers know what to expect and provide something they look forward to.  It’s a relationship being built.  When frantic self-centered messages arrive unannounced it damages the relationship.  Not only won’t the recipient take action on the impromptu offer but are less likely to respond in the future.

So rather than panic, learn.  Use the immediacy of email to your advantage.  You get almost instantaneous reports.  Analyse the data and use it to make the most logical offers.  Instead of rushing to get something out, tally what worked and what didn’t and blow the doors off your next goal.  Provide subscribers value while promoting your business and they will look forward to the communications and take advantage of your offers.  Email marketing is immediate, but that shouldn’t be turned into hasty.  Make a campaign, learn from mistakes, and gradually work toward goals.  A little patience goes a long way and ultimately is the best way to generate revenue from a campaign.

Internet and Email Marketing is a No-Brainer for Trainers and Consultants.

If you are a trainer or consultant and are not using the internet in your marketing matrix, you are missing a golden opportunity.  The media might as well be designed with this group in mind.  Why?  Internet and email marketing is built around communicating information.  It’s a trainer’s and consultant’s stock in trade.  Their business is built on having and communicating information.  It is perfectly suited to making people aware of the subject and industry niches served.

So what’s the downside?  Trainers and consultants need to be diligent about how much content is enough and how much is too little.  Everyone hates the online gimmick of “get valuable information” only to receive a nicely packaged sales pitch with little or no worthwhile content.  The reverse is just as dangerous, you can’t and shouldn’t teach people via these mediums.  It’s not well suited for it and that’s the part that potential clients have to pay for.

Finding that happy medium can be a challenge.  You want to provide some valuable insights but not get so in depth that people get confused.  Finding a proof reader that doesn’t know your business particularly well can provide guidance on whether too much or too little has been said.  They will be a good sample audience to say whether they found the information insightful or if it wasn’t over their head.

Trainers and consultants have a perfect opportunity to give a brief showcase of what they do and how good they are at it.  Not only will internet and email marketing be perfectly suited to displaying this content, it is the most cost effective way of delivering it.  If you’re not doing any online marketing, get started.  It will introduce people to your company and services, position you as a thought leader, and transition into leads.

Excuse #4 For Not Doing Email Marketing: It’s just SPAM

This is the one excuse that can be legitimate.  However, that’s entirely up to the creator of the email campaign.  Many people have been turned off by email due to its abuse by unscrupulous organizations and people.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t a positive way to do it.

The problem with the term SPAM is that it’s not clearly defined for most people.  There are legal guidelines to follow for email marketing to avoid falling under the SPAM category.  These should all be strictly followed.  Some very important ones are providing a way for subscribers to unsubscribe so they don’t continue receiving the emails and including the organization’s name and physical address on every email so that subscribers know who is responsible for sending it.

However, I’m willing to bet every legitimate email campaign has been reported as SPAM by at least one subscriber that forgot they subscribed or lost interest and used the SPAM complaint rather than the unsubscribe tool.  That doesn’t mean the email is SPAM only that someone misrepresented it as such.

Obviously SPAM complaints need to be taken seriously and too many of those is a clear signal that your campaign is not being run in the best fashion.  However, don’t let the SPAM tag stop you from doing email marketing.  Let it motivate you to provide a quality communication that will be valued and rarely mistaken for SPAM.

Excuse #3 For Not Doing Email Marketing: My site already has a lot of traffic.

This is the equivalent of saying I already sell enough.  This excuse means one of two things.  The first is that you’re at capacity, whatever you sell takes up a certain amount of time and energy and you can’t take on any more, or have decided not to take on more work.  If that’s the case then you’ve made a life decision, not an effectiveness decision.  There’s nothing wrong with that unless an email marketing campaign is attempted on the cheap (either time, energy, or money) and backfires.  In that case, emails not to blame, the site owner is. 

The second case is that the site owner doesn’t feel they need more traffic.  They either feel they are making enough or fear moving their site to the next level.  This tends to creep in when small businesses begin to grow and more site traffic means larger hosting fees or new technology solutions, like dedicated servers.  Don’t let growth opportunities pass by.  Websites are often like businesses, they are either growing or dieing.

For the truly motivated site owner there is never “enough” traffic.  Email marketing also has the added benefit of being able to strengthen relationships and up-sell clients.  Don’t rest on your laurels, use every medium available that can increase site traffic and conversions.

Excuse #2 For Not Doing Email Marketing: I have nothing to say.

This has got to be the most depressing reason for not doing email marketing.  When this excuse is used, it typically goes deeper than email marketing, it saturates the person’s or organizations mentality.  This is akin to saying my product or service is boring or I don’t do enough to talk about.  The fact is there is something to say, it just might be too close to see.  People tend to stop seeing the appeal of what they do after a while because it becomes mundane to them.  Every person, company, or organization has a story, if they didn’t, they wouldn’t exist.  The challenge is figuring out what part of the story matters to the intended audience.

If you want to run weekly emails that are nothing but digital fliers, you’re right, you have nothing to say.  If you’re spouting mission statements or dull facts about how the company started, you’re saying very little.  However, that doesn’t mean you have nothing to say, you just aren’t saying it.  Every business can and should do more than slapping ads or dolling out facts on the web.  Sure fliers or mission statements are boring and no one cares but that doesn’t mean the story they’re trying to tell is a bad one.  It’s like saying Shakespeare is terrible when a bad group of amateurs perform his work.  The way it’s being told is at fault, not the story. 

So look into your fliers, mission statements, or history.  There probably is a compelling story there.  Drill down to what you think the audience will respond to.  Chances are you’re an expert at what you do and if you write about that expertise, people will pay attention.  Good content is always in demand.

Don’t use the “nothing to say” excuse.  If someone really feels this way, it’s probably time to move on completely.  Email marketing is a great way to spread a message about an organization and if someone can’t get excited about that opportunity, there’s a bigger problem than putting off an email campaign, there’s a lack of passion for what they do.

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