(by 5 people)
The second wave of email marketing has started.
But what is email marketing really all about? How can you make it work for both sender and recipient?
And what people and websites can help you ride that wave?
The problem, the opportunity
Inboxes are filling up with permission-based spam: those marketing emails which fulfill legal anti-spam requirements, but neglect the psychological ones.
These are the emails that fail to engage the reader, come too often, or simply fall short of recipient expectations. For the recipient, they're just as much spam as ads for prescription drugs and stock recommendations.
Surveys suggest people like commercial email. They just don't always like the kind of commercial email they currently get.
So how should email marketers approach the problem and grasp the opportunity?
These are the emails that fail to engage the reader, come too often, or simply fall short of recipient expectations. For the recipient, they're just as much spam as ads for prescription drugs and stock recommendations.
Surveys suggest people like commercial email. They just don't always like the kind of commercial email they currently get.
So how should email marketers approach the problem and grasp the opportunity?
Before we start - key sources of email marketing knowledge
- Email Marketing Reports
- Over 2,000 reviewed and commented links to relevant articles, books, reports, e-newsletters, sites, tools and more. I can vouch for pretty much each review, since I'm the poor idiot who wrote them all. You'll also find my own articles there, which tend to take a more practical approach and avoid the wishy-washy stuff.
- Email Advertising Basics
- A specific collection devoted to online resources that address the basics of email marketing - for those new to the subject area.
- ClickZ Experts
- The email marketing section at ClickZ. Many years' worth of articles on various aspects of the subject, written by industry professionals (mostly vendors and consultants, but with strong editorial control to prevent too much self-promotion).
- EmailSherpa
- Industry newsletter high on pragmatism and practical advice, often featuring case studies, survey and research results and expert interviews.
- iMedia Connection
- The archive of email marketing articles from this online publication. They often feature Q&As with leading folk in the industry, as well as articles on trends and specifics.
- OnlineMarketing.info
- Search numerous hand-picked email marketing resources, blogs, media sites and vendor pages.
The six building blocks
A successful email marketing program has many elements. But there are six building blocks on which to base a winning email strategy...
>> Permission
>> Relevance
>> Value
>> Timeliness
>> Professionalism
>> Personality
The only people succeeding with non-permission based email marketing are living alone in basements hoping nobody (especially the authorities) finds out what they do for a living.
Getting the initial explicit permission to add someone to your email list is just the start. Good relationships are based on mutual respect, and permission is about respecting the time and privacy of the recipient.
And that respect needs to pervade everything that comes after sign-up, too.
>> Permission
>> Relevance
>> Value
>> Timeliness
>> Professionalism
>> Personality
The only people succeeding with non-permission based email marketing are living alone in basements hoping nobody (especially the authorities) finds out what they do for a living.
Getting the initial explicit permission to add someone to your email list is just the start. Good relationships are based on mutual respect, and permission is about respecting the time and privacy of the recipient.
And that respect needs to pervade everything that comes after sign-up, too.
He gets permission...
- "Permission" is Not Optional
- Loren McDonald is VP Marketing at EmailLabs and a reliable source of unbiased, high-value advice and information. In this article, he tackles the issue of permission in detail, explaining what it's about and why it should be a no-brainer for email marketers.
- Permission: Standard or Best Practice?
- Together with Kirill Popov, Loren McDonald again presents a coherent, real-world argument in favor of the permission approach to email marketing.
Do I need this?
This idea of respect leads us to relevancy. Sending relevant email says I'm not wasting your time sending you stuff you neither need nor want.
Quite apart from the respect issue, nobody responds to irrelevant email. Unless you count a response as hitting the "delete" button or -- worse -- the "report this email as spam" button.
People don't carry around a copy of Can-Spam or any other legislation with them. If they think it's spam, then it's spam. There is no sympathy around for irrelevant emails.
Quite apart from the respect issue, nobody responds to irrelevant email. Unless you count a response as hitting the "delete" button or -- worse -- the "report this email as spam" button.
People don't carry around a copy of Can-Spam or any other legislation with them. If they think it's spam, then it's spam. There is no sympathy around for irrelevant emails.
He gets relevancy...
- The Quiet Revolution in Email
- Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop, is a thought leader in the email space and often cites the core importance of relevance. He also has plenty of things to say about permission and the future of email marketing, including its integration with related technologies like RSS. This is his personal blog.
- Are you spamming your customers?
- Tony Quin gets to the heart of the matter regarding relevancy and spam. Another convert to the cause.
More than just relevant...
To be really powerful, relevancy has to combine with value and timeliness. Sending me the results of my favorite soccer team may be relevant in one sense, but offer neither value nor timeliness if they arrive a week after the game was played.
It's about getting rewarding content in front of the right person at the right time.
It's about getting rewarding content in front of the right person at the right time.
He gets value...
- The Chief Penguin
- Michael Katz's site has a long series of archived e-newsletter articles on the subject of e-newsletters and relationship building. Katz has always understood the vast potential of email in building relationships with clients, customers and prospects. Every article is worth reading.
Don't forget the details...
To do all this right, of course, you need to take a professional approach.
There is too much competition out there to let you get away with lazy practices. Hundreds of individuals and companies are sending email to your recipients. Don't let sloppy practices give people an excuse to screen your message out.
There are plenty of articles out there to help you understand the basics of sending email so that you maximize your chances of getting it through, opened and acted upon.
There is too much competition out there to let you get away with lazy practices. Hundreds of individuals and companies are sending email to your recipients. Don't let sloppy practices give people an excuse to screen your message out.
There are plenty of articles out there to help you understand the basics of sending email so that you maximize your chances of getting it through, opened and acted upon.
Finding those articles...
- No man is an iland
- This is my email marketing blog. Everyday I pick out the best email marketing articles on the web and point people at them. The number of posts has reached four figures. I have no agenda, boss, clients or financial affiliations, so the choice of articles is based purely on merit and how much time I have before the football begins.
The final building block
Which brings us to personality.
This is the great leveller. You simply may not have all the resources, skills and funky tools to optimize your email marketing as you'd like to. But injecting a touch of personality into your emails can go a long way to compensate for that.
And even if you do have the skills, resources and funky tools, personality is the thing that will make you stand out from all the other cash-rich competitors.
You can define personality how you like, but it's all about developing a unique, engaging, personable, genuine flavor to your emails. You don't want to disappear in the morass of mundane, mediocre marketing speak and stock photos.
This is the great leveller. You simply may not have all the resources, skills and funky tools to optimize your email marketing as you'd like to. But injecting a touch of personality into your emails can go a long way to compensate for that.
And even if you do have the skills, resources and funky tools, personality is the thing that will make you stand out from all the other cash-rich competitors.
You can define personality how you like, but it's all about developing a unique, engaging, personable, genuine flavor to your emails. You don't want to disappear in the morass of mundane, mediocre marketing speak and stock photos.
Finally...
Everything you do in email marketing draws on these six elements.
Are you sending people what you said you'd send them? Is your offer relevant to their wants? Is your send frequency appropriate? Does your creative and copywriting engage the viewer? Are you following best practices for deliverability so people get the desired content in the first place?
There is a strong argument that says permission, relevancy etc. is all about maximizing success metrics. But it's more than just better numbers.
It's about establishing a long-term mutually-beneficial relationship with the recipient of your emails. It's about safeguarding the viability of email as a marketing vehicle. It's about sustainable marketing and not slash and burn marketing.
Are you sending people what you said you'd send them? Is your offer relevant to their wants? Is your send frequency appropriate? Does your creative and copywriting engage the viewer? Are you following best practices for deliverability so people get the desired content in the first place?
There is a strong argument that says permission, relevancy etc. is all about maximizing success metrics. But it's more than just better numbers.
It's about establishing a long-term mutually-beneficial relationship with the recipient of your emails. It's about safeguarding the viability of email as a marketing vehicle. It's about sustainable marketing and not slash and burn marketing.
No man is an iland
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