Wearing a zebra suit with a friend and walking into an area with lions might be seen as a poor choice. The choices people make in daily life can have a bigger impact than you might think. You may not realize this until you make a really bad decision, where after you’re fully committed, there’s no way to back out or change what’s coming. Making smart choices, especially for your business, requires time to think through all possible results, situations, and consequences. Always take the time to carefully examine your ideas and have a solid plan in place.
Bad pizza might be better than having no pizza, but the same doesn’t apply to email marketing. If you use this marketing tool the wrong way, the results can be worse than a bad stomachache—it can seriously harm your company’s reputation. Some mistakes could get you banned, while others might make you seem like a spammer. At best—if you can even call it that—you’ll annoy your customers. They won’t just unsubscribe; they’ll completely ignore your business. It would be smarter to skip marketing altogether.
If you’re going to reach out to customers and prospects with email marketing, it’s essential to do it right. Consider these best practices that will keep you on the good side of your customer base, Internet service providers, email service providers, and the law.
Don’t Over Sell
Most businesses need to stop advertising and start listening to their customers’ wants and needs. While 20 percent discounts are nice, the people who buy from you also want to be entertained and enlightened. Consider sending them interesting and topical information, tips for getting the most out of your product, and life improving tidbits in addition to deals and special offers. A mix of communications keeps your marketing fresh—it also keeps your customers interested in your brand.
Don’t Over Send
Edge Research recently conducted a survey of small and mid-sized business marketing managers. They discovered that only 6 percent email their customer list daily. That’s a good thing—those yahoos are likely irritating their client base and losing sales as a result. Thirty-nine percent take a smarter approach, emailing their list at least once per week. At Email Answers, our clients, on average send email marketing newsletters, promotions and specials four to eight times per month. They may send a weekly newsletter followed up with a weekly special or promotion. Remember, too much of anything is not a good thing.
Avoid the Filter
According to Return Path, 10 to 20 percent of sent emails never make it to their destination. Spam filters are the biggest culprit, grabbing communications before they reach your customer’s inbox. To keep your emails out of the junk folder, experts suggest avoiding using “spammy” words and phrases. You should also SAY NO TO ALL CAPS, and don’t over use exclamation points!!! Additionally, spam filters often consider red and green copy, single HTML images and sloppy HTML code to be spam indicators.
Always Get Permission
It’s sad but true. Sometimes customers will report legitimate businesses for spam abuse. However, that’s often the fault of the businesses themselves because they fail to ask permission first. If you want to stay off the blacklist, never email promotions to customers without first asking permission. Never email promotions to prospects you meet at a trade show without having them opt-in to your list. To be on the safe side, never email promotions to your mother without first getting permission.
Keep Your List Fresh
Many people change email addresses regularly. A hard bounce indicates that an email address is bad, dead and no longer in service. Every email you send to a bad email address is time and money wasted. Whether you’re mailing to your own customer base or a list you generated using lead generation techniques, consider using an email list cleaning and validation service. It will save you from expensive headaches in the long run.
Remember that Edge Research survey we mentioned earlier? Well, respondents also indicated that email marketing receives 15 percent of their marketing budget on average—more dollars than any other marketing tool. If your business sets aside $50,000 per year to woo clients, that’s $7,500—money wasted if you engage in bad email marketing. If you’re not going to follow basic email best practices, you’re better off spending your marketing dollars on bad pizza and Rolaids, or better yet, just opt for the zebra costume and don’t forget to grab your buddy to fill the head end, because you deserve to be the ass .
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