Email Marketing vs. SPAM

Email Marketing vs. SPAM

(First Published by The Australia Business Network - www.abn.org.au)

Email marketing is an extremely effective customer relationship management tool.
There is a lot of confusion today about email marketing. Unfortunately many people see email marketing as synonymous with spam. However, both are extremely different. One is prosperous and can build your company, while the other can lead to a lawsuit.

Email marketing vs. spam
Email marketing is a permission-based email campaign. This can take the form of an advertisement or an up-sell of a product or service. It is anything that builds client relationships such as informing them of an event or requesting a survey to be completed for mutually beneficial results.
Spam is a slang term for unsolicited email. Spammers gather their email addresses from a variety of sources including bulk email lists, email discussion groups, online bulletin boards and website contact information.
Email marketing is a business tool
Email marketing is an extremely effective customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Its flexibility and cost effectiveness cannot be matched by any other medium available today. The possibilities of email marketing are endless, and even the smallest organisations can use email marketing to their advantage.

The most important advantages of email are:

Email is inexpensive. Email is, by far, a less expensive and more cost-effective option for marketers than traditional direct mail efforts. This is mainly due to the elimination of printing costs, fulfilment costs and postage fees.
Fast campaign turnaround times. A quality email marketing tool enables you to execute campaigns very quickly. You can envision, design and deploy campaigns in as little as two hours.
Database integration and personalisation capabilities. By integrating your opt-in email system with your customer database, you will be able to personalise your email messages based on the various fields contained in your system. A personalised message generally receives more attention because it speaks to the reader on a personal basis and therefore delivers better results than a generic message.
Fast response times. Using email, you will typically receive 80 per cent of your responses within 48 hours of your mailing.
Ability to test and research offers. Email, coupled with database integration, allows you to quickly test different offers on varied segments of your list to determine the most favourable combinations of customers and offers.

Six ways to implement email marketing campaigns

Start a newsletter. Start an ongoing form of communication with your customers and prospects. Keep your audience up to date on a weekly or monthly basis. A newsletter can contain product and service information, policy changes, industry information and press coverage. Share your tips, tricks or best practices. Providing this information can position you as an expert in your industry. You will be the first point of contact for your customers when they want the latest information.
Send a course or a series. Whether it is a paid course, a series or a value-added offer from your company, make the most of the economics of email marketing.
Thank your customers. A short thank-you email will go a long way in maintaining and building a business relationship. Combine the thank-you with a special offer or survey that tells your customers how much you appreciate their business and respect their opinions.
Ask follow-up questions. A short message asking customers about their experiences after the transaction can go a long way. Ask how your processes can be improved. Get feedback from the most important person – the customer who has gone through the process in real life.
Conduct a poll. Send a survey to get market research, solicit product feedback, recruit focus groups or discover how your customers are using your products. Consider offering a gift as a thank-you for participating in the poll, e.g. an entry in a competition, or incentives such as an e-book, white paper or article.
Hold special offers. Consider holding special customer-only sales or running a contest. These can be separate offers or cross or up-sell offers. Special deals make the recipient feel special, and it doesn’t take much to nurture a relationship with these customer-only incentives.

Kath Pay is Marketing Director of Ezemail, an innovative company that provides comprehensive email marketing solutions including a fully re-brandable Agency solution. For more information on how easily email marketing can be implemented, please contact Kath at kath@ezemail.com.