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When will your customer call you a spammer?

Email marketing continues to get a bad rap.

Small business executives get so much spam in their own in-box that they figure an email marketing campaign will be a waste of time-- or worse-- their company will develop a reputation as a spammer.  Being cautious is wise, but I feel avoiding email marketing completely is a mistake.

In today's Email Insider newsletter Eric Sass mentions the three most common types of consumer complaints about email marketing.  They make sense to me:

1. The subject matter isn't relevant.
2. The company sends too many emails.
3. The email links to shady websites (spyware, for example.)

The bottom-line?  Build an email list yourself, with real clients and prospects, and respect their time.  Follow these guidelines and you can leave the SPAM on the dinner-table...or on the shelf at the supermarket.

Email marketing works

I came across some data from the marketing and research firm DoubleClick and I was inspired to share: Email works.

...E-mail continues to be a viable direct marketing tactic. Seventy-eight percent said they made a purchase as a result of an e-mail, 59 percent redeemed an e-mail coupon in a store and almost one-third have clicked on an e-mail and made an immediate purchase. Another third reported clicking on e-mails for information and returning later to make purchases...  [December 2005]

Email Marketing: Where to Start

Email marketing is a big topic and my 'Getting Started' posts aim to be brief, so let me offer some quick, simple ideas on how to begin and save the fine-points for another day.  Note that I'm a fan of permission-based email marketing, AKA, 'opt-in.'

1.  Decide what you want to say

• Provide information to your readers
• Develop a voice, a message, and a mission

2.  Build your own list

• Start collecting names on your website
• Add your current and past clients to your list (ask permission.)

3.  Send in HTML

• Look smart, sophisticated and professional to your client
• Provide links back to your site

4.  Obey the SPAM laws

• Unsubscribe link
• Physical address
• Etc.

5.  Be consistent

• Send a monthly newsletter out MONTHLY, no less, no more.
• Always have an extra month's worth of content, so you're not scrambling around at the last minute if things get busy at publishing time.

Email marketing is a great way to turn a friend into a customer, and a customer into a salesperson. (For more on this see this post.)