E-Mail Marketing

Posted by Paul | Posted in Small Business Marketing | Posted on 05-11-2009

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Re-think SPAM

Sending a mailing out yesterday to our list has caused me to ponder the whole approach to direct marketing practices. How it has changed over the years.

I remember my dad going to the mailbox at the end of our lane to retrieve the morning mail. He grumbled that there was yet another offering from the Publishers clearing house you know pitch subscribe to 3 magazines get one free and be eligible for the millionaire draw.

My mother loved to browse through the pages of new magazines being offered, licking the stamps and pasting them on her selections then mailing that away and wait in anticipation for her new magazines delivered right to our mailbox. My Dad grumbled.

Myself, on the other hand waited for monthly mailing from Columbia House for latest albums they were offering for the month. Get 8 albums for free for the price of one. As soon as they arrived I would play them over and over … well you get it my Dad grumbled.

All my dad wanted to see in the mailbox was monthly household bills what was being offered at the area hardware store and of course the newspaper. How could he have his morning coffee without the newspaper. He never grumbled.

Lets fast track this to 2009 now nothing gets delivered through the mail so I depend on the email to provide to me the convenience that the physical mailbox offered.

Unlike, times before if I don’t like what is being delivered to my virtual mailbox I can delete it or file it for later reading or I can unsubscribe. Isn’t that enough but, I see people still grumbling, screaming SPAM,  hitting the SPAM button and sending the marketer a seize and desist order.

Sure, we are being inundated with marketing messages some are infuriating like why does television commercials show me tampon  ads when I am a man. I can’t opt-out, hit the SPAM button or send them threatning orders to get the commercial off my television set. I can of course turn off my television set.

As a marketer who abides by sending only relevant marketing material to those who are interested in the subject content say to those grumblers out there.

You have another option “Turn off your email you are as much of the problem as the Spammers are.”

To increase your deliver-ability and to keep the amount of grumbling at bay Al Iverson over at ExactTarget posted a highly relevant blog titled ” Do Consumers Hate Email Append” check it out before making your next post to your list.

The relevance and frequency of YOUR emails are much more important than the content.

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  • great post but the problem is that you consider that everyone who is sending you comercial offers are serious persons. It's not the case at all ! (or I would not bother working on my blog). If only all the SPAMS where good offers in disguise we would probably curious to open them. An other thing is that even good offers are all so similar (read my limited time offer then order or quit but wait ! we still have another offer for you ! etc...) that it's boring.
  • @Nadia sorry about not responding sooner... yes, I do concur the very nature of email marketing has been a sort of canned message that all marketers seem to have adopted and it shows a lack of creativity. The buy now or lose it attitude sucks.

    When, marketers grow past this and breathe some objectivity into the marketing message then, spammy emails may well be minimized.
  • I do totally agree that more creativity needs to used but, direct marketing copy writing has proven that these types of offers do work. It has been shown that marketing a product without the normal giveaways has a depreciating affect with conversion. This shows to me that we mortal humans are guided by emotional appeal it is for this reason I believe that video will continue to be the new frontier of marketing your products due to its emotional appeal.
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