 You see it all over the blogosphere, talk about how email is the best channel for a down economy because it's the best bang for your buck. Email marketing has the greatest potential to generate revenue with the smallest investment, that's true. As a result, we're now seeing that marketers are really starting to respond to the hype by sending more email than ever, and those who never sent email before are finally jumping on the band wagon.
This is all well and good for those ESP's that are in charge of sending the emails - great business. However, what we're also starting to see is marketers getting too email happy (if that's even possible) and over sending and/or not following the best practices set out many of the experts (who, by the way, have been doing this for way too many years to count now).
So, a few words of caution to all those marketers who are wrapped up in the hype:
It's very easy to fatigue your readers by sending too much information too frequently. I understand that you have amazing things to show them and tell them, but please consider grouping the messages into a weekly digest or allow your readers to set their own frequency preference. While some people don't mind being bombarded daily with copious amounts of email, others are a little more sensitive.
Yes, email marketing is a great communication channel with a decent ROI. However, just as it's easy to fatigue your readers by sending too frequently, sending irrelevant content to them will have the same effect. I'm a woman who loves to hike, I don’t want to see ads or offers for men's biking shorts - please!
Don't forget permission!
Yes, it's said over and over that you must get permission before sending email, but time and time again I see people circumnavigating that process or finding the loop holes that allow them to blast away without permission. By not following best practices for gaining permission you're opening yourself (and your ESP) to increased spam complaints and/or deliverability issues because of your bad sending habits. Don't think for one second that your ESP is going to put up with that - even in a down economy.
Respect the opt-out!
I know, the bigger the list the more people you hit, and the more potential you create for a sale. So why remove people from your list, right?? Wrong! With email, by not respecting unsubscribes you're creating more potential for trouble rather than for a sale. I've seen too many emails come through lately that have dysfunctional unsubscribes or that have unsubscribe processes that are so convoluted that you give up on page 5 and resign yourself to the fact that you'll be getting emails from Bob's Wrench Shop for the rest of your natural life.
It's not hard to follow a few best practices that have been time tested and proven to help generate better results. Always remember the age old rule - less is more!
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About the Author
Lindsay Kloepping is a product manager at Lyris. She is responsible for defining and delivering customer requirements to improve their email marketing ROI.
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