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Nov 04
2007
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How People Respond To Email MarketingPosted by in Untagged |
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Thousands of good things happened this year. I think one of my favorites is the positive perception of email marketing: not by businesses, but by the millions of people who receive marketing material in the form of email everyday.
People Want:
1. Relevant Information Respect Of Privacy
3. Opinions, not the Hard Sell
4. Control & Alternatives
Relevant Information
Traditional sales people are adamant that selling will always be a numbers game and that all you need to tame the ‘law of averages’ is resilience. Good sales people don’t allow rejections to stress them up. They thrive on the learning experiences being turned away brings. They do get worried when the prospecting pool starts to dry up. Many people give me this excuse,
“My mailing list is very small, couple of hundred, I don’t think I’m ready for email marketing”.
40% of my clientele have mailing lists less than 500, but their average R.O.I. per campaign is SGD 78 for every SGD 1 spent. Is that not a positive thing? Why should you focus on the quality of your list and not the quantity?
The demographics of people on your list tell you what and how you should deliver your messages. In sales terms, “If you address my issues, you have my attention”. In today’s world where attention is a pricey commodity, it’s very important to stay relevant if you want to stay in the game. I used the word ‘stay’ because your audience’s preferences will naturally evolve too.
Traditional marketing was based on what the ‘company’ wanted to say. Whether you’re a man, a woman, a business owner, have dandruff or not, you still have to see the same advertisement as everyone else. You may see a few variations, but the concept of traditional advertising is to cast a wide net. The problem is this method is often costly.
The art of ‘consumer-centric’ marketing evolves with a fundamental of your sales training; listening skills. Website and blogs are inexpensive to deploy and you can place forms that gather customer preferences efficiently. If 80% of your audience wants topic A, would you give them topic B? The beauty of email marketing is you don’t have to ignore the other 20%. You can still send them the relevant topics they ask for (keyword).
Respect Of Privacy
One of the things I was excited about this year was the introduction of the ‘SPAM Control Act’. At the end of the day, sales is about trust and respect. I hate people who abuse purchased-lists. First of all, I don’t disapprove of all rented or purchased lists. There is a place for them when used ethically and acquired from the proper source. What I’m against is ‘abuse’.
The first thing you have to understand about a rented or purchased list, is that you’re not the only one using it. People on that list have already received marketing material from other companies who have bought it and a majority of them could already be very cheesed off by the surge of spam.
I’ve found that using rented or purchased lists work only in the following circumstances;
1. You are really selling something unique (e.g. trip to space)
2. You are a really big brand name (and even they don’t do it)
3. You send very personalized one-on-one introductions.
If you so boldly decide to mass message people on a rented or purchased-list, then do yourself a favor in your first campaign; state your intentions clearly, make it personal and ask if you can continue sending them materials. Asking is polite and if you get people in a good mood, you may get a second chance! This is where you can count on the law of averages. Here’s a sample;
Dear Calvin,
My name is Hobbes and I represent my company, Calvin & Hobbes Inc. We sell very funny comics and over the next few weeks, we will be actively promoting a few new editions. If you are interested to know more, please give us your permission to send you these information (once a week at most) by visiting this link;
http://www.shoutlabs.com/signup/calvin-and-hobbes-inc/
To help you make an informed decision about whether to hear from us again, you can also visit our website at http://calvin.and.hobbes.com to learn more about us.
If you do not wish to receive any future information, you can simply ignore this email or un-subscribe using the link below. Un-subscribing helps us keep a record so that we diligently remember not to accidentally send you any such material.
Sincerely,
Hobbes
That wasn’t so hard was it? Try to restraint yourself from including all sorts of products and services in your email. If people don’t even like your subject-line and your introduction, they won’t scroll to see the rest of your offer. When people decide they no longer want to hear from you, please, do NOT send them anything further.
Opinions, not the Hard Sell
Word of mouth marketing has never been bad for business. The basis of this form of marketing is ‘trust’. If I trust you, I will trust your recommendations. Consumers today are not stupid. We know that if you have enough money to hire a good advertising firm, your marketing will be so juicy and tempting. But we all know people don’t buy because of marketing, we buy because of value and trust.
Value: Is your product or service worth the money I pay? I don’t mind settling for a $19 MP3 player if that’s all I can afford and I’m not expecting it to live longer than 3 months. I would also be willing to pay over $500K for a sports car because it may represent style and status to me.
Trust: Have you been in your industry long? Do you know what you’re talking about? Is it safe to use your products or services? Will I benefit? Is your customer service up to standard? What are your replacement and refund policies?
Word of mouth makes a bigger difference today than it did 10 years ago because opinions travel faster with the help of technology. Customer testimonials, case studies and a corporate blog can have a permanent and influencial place on websites and blogs.
Control
Good News! People today know the difference between spam and sincere-but-irrelevant email. A nifty button labeled ‘Report Spam’ or ‘Junk’ gives them ultimate control over the fate of your future email marketing attempts at them. People will use the ‘UN-SUBSCRIBE’ button if you provide one and this is a good thing. Why?
From grades in school to poll numbers in politics, we’ve been trained to not like it when numbers fall. The same applies for your mailing list. I’ve met people who are so scared to get even one un-subscribe that they refuse to embark on an email-marketing project. If people un-subscribe from your list, you should stand up and be grateful because;
1. These people trust your unsubscribe policies.
2. The demographics tell you who’s NOT a good audience.
3. It is feedback on your campaign performance.
Only a small handful of people still use the ‘report spam’ button as a convenient way to un-subscribe from a list. They are probably the same people who won’t read instruction manuals and will call your hotline for just about anything. Is this the customer you want?
Make full use of ‘un-subscription’ possibilities. If your design doesn’t suck and your use of grammar and vocabulary is perfect, then the most common reason why people un-subscribe is that your information is not relevant to them. Politely ask people who unsubscribe for feedback. The easiest way is to use a drop-down or check box system. You could also offer other subscription alternatives. For example, if I un-subscribe from the general newsletter of a news company, they always ask if I would consider staying on the list if I received information less often or more targeted (e.g. tech, medicine etc).
Conclusion
Marketing is not a one-way street anymore. Learning from its sibling, ‘Sales’, marketing has evolved to become a two-way communication between you and your customers. Email Marketing offers a host of data-mining possibilities. If you stop treating email marketing like a numbers game and start using it to help your marketing and sales efforts make more informative decisions, you’ve grasped the concept of marketing into today’s world.
People Want:
1. Relevant Information Respect Of Privacy
3. Opinions, not the Hard Sell
4. Control & Alternatives
Relevant Information
Traditional sales people are adamant that selling will always be a numbers game and that all you need to tame the ‘law of averages’ is resilience. Good sales people don’t allow rejections to stress them up. They thrive on the learning experiences being turned away brings. They do get worried when the prospecting pool starts to dry up. Many people give me this excuse,
“My mailing list is very small, couple of hundred, I don’t think I’m ready for email marketing”.
40% of my clientele have mailing lists less than 500, but their average R.O.I. per campaign is SGD 78 for every SGD 1 spent. Is that not a positive thing? Why should you focus on the quality of your list and not the quantity?
The demographics of people on your list tell you what and how you should deliver your messages. In sales terms, “If you address my issues, you have my attention”. In today’s world where attention is a pricey commodity, it’s very important to stay relevant if you want to stay in the game. I used the word ‘stay’ because your audience’s preferences will naturally evolve too.
Traditional marketing was based on what the ‘company’ wanted to say. Whether you’re a man, a woman, a business owner, have dandruff or not, you still have to see the same advertisement as everyone else. You may see a few variations, but the concept of traditional advertising is to cast a wide net. The problem is this method is often costly.
The art of ‘consumer-centric’ marketing evolves with a fundamental of your sales training; listening skills. Website and blogs are inexpensive to deploy and you can place forms that gather customer preferences efficiently. If 80% of your audience wants topic A, would you give them topic B? The beauty of email marketing is you don’t have to ignore the other 20%. You can still send them the relevant topics they ask for (keyword).
Respect Of Privacy
One of the things I was excited about this year was the introduction of the ‘SPAM Control Act’. At the end of the day, sales is about trust and respect. I hate people who abuse purchased-lists. First of all, I don’t disapprove of all rented or purchased lists. There is a place for them when used ethically and acquired from the proper source. What I’m against is ‘abuse’.
The first thing you have to understand about a rented or purchased list, is that you’re not the only one using it. People on that list have already received marketing material from other companies who have bought it and a majority of them could already be very cheesed off by the surge of spam.
I’ve found that using rented or purchased lists work only in the following circumstances;
1. You are really selling something unique (e.g. trip to space)
2. You are a really big brand name (and even they don’t do it)
3. You send very personalized one-on-one introductions.
If you so boldly decide to mass message people on a rented or purchased-list, then do yourself a favor in your first campaign; state your intentions clearly, make it personal and ask if you can continue sending them materials. Asking is polite and if you get people in a good mood, you may get a second chance! This is where you can count on the law of averages. Here’s a sample;
Dear Calvin,
My name is Hobbes and I represent my company, Calvin & Hobbes Inc. We sell very funny comics and over the next few weeks, we will be actively promoting a few new editions. If you are interested to know more, please give us your permission to send you these information (once a week at most) by visiting this link;
http://www.shoutlabs.com/signup/calvin-and-hobbes-inc/
To help you make an informed decision about whether to hear from us again, you can also visit our website at http://calvin.and.hobbes.com to learn more about us.
If you do not wish to receive any future information, you can simply ignore this email or un-subscribe using the link below. Un-subscribing helps us keep a record so that we diligently remember not to accidentally send you any such material.
Sincerely,
Hobbes
That wasn’t so hard was it? Try to restraint yourself from including all sorts of products and services in your email. If people don’t even like your subject-line and your introduction, they won’t scroll to see the rest of your offer. When people decide they no longer want to hear from you, please, do NOT send them anything further.
Opinions, not the Hard Sell
Word of mouth marketing has never been bad for business. The basis of this form of marketing is ‘trust’. If I trust you, I will trust your recommendations. Consumers today are not stupid. We know that if you have enough money to hire a good advertising firm, your marketing will be so juicy and tempting. But we all know people don’t buy because of marketing, we buy because of value and trust.
Value: Is your product or service worth the money I pay? I don’t mind settling for a $19 MP3 player if that’s all I can afford and I’m not expecting it to live longer than 3 months. I would also be willing to pay over $500K for a sports car because it may represent style and status to me.
Trust: Have you been in your industry long? Do you know what you’re talking about? Is it safe to use your products or services? Will I benefit? Is your customer service up to standard? What are your replacement and refund policies?
Word of mouth makes a bigger difference today than it did 10 years ago because opinions travel faster with the help of technology. Customer testimonials, case studies and a corporate blog can have a permanent and influencial place on websites and blogs.
Control
Good News! People today know the difference between spam and sincere-but-irrelevant email. A nifty button labeled ‘Report Spam’ or ‘Junk’ gives them ultimate control over the fate of your future email marketing attempts at them. People will use the ‘UN-SUBSCRIBE’ button if you provide one and this is a good thing. Why?
From grades in school to poll numbers in politics, we’ve been trained to not like it when numbers fall. The same applies for your mailing list. I’ve met people who are so scared to get even one un-subscribe that they refuse to embark on an email-marketing project. If people un-subscribe from your list, you should stand up and be grateful because;
1. These people trust your unsubscribe policies.
2. The demographics tell you who’s NOT a good audience.
3. It is feedback on your campaign performance.
Only a small handful of people still use the ‘report spam’ button as a convenient way to un-subscribe from a list. They are probably the same people who won’t read instruction manuals and will call your hotline for just about anything. Is this the customer you want?
Make full use of ‘un-subscription’ possibilities. If your design doesn’t suck and your use of grammar and vocabulary is perfect, then the most common reason why people un-subscribe is that your information is not relevant to them. Politely ask people who unsubscribe for feedback. The easiest way is to use a drop-down or check box system. You could also offer other subscription alternatives. For example, if I un-subscribe from the general newsletter of a news company, they always ask if I would consider staying on the list if I received information less often or more targeted (e.g. tech, medicine etc).
Conclusion
Marketing is not a one-way street anymore. Learning from its sibling, ‘Sales’, marketing has evolved to become a two-way communication between you and your customers. Email Marketing offers a host of data-mining possibilities. If you stop treating email marketing like a numbers game and start using it to help your marketing and sales efforts make more informative decisions, you’ve grasped the concept of marketing into today’s world.
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