Tomicide Solutions July 2007: Seven Considerations for Spam-Free Email Marketing

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

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Email marketing is a great way of developing new business. We can use it both for generating new leads and staying in touch with existing leads and guide them through our sales funnels. If done right, it can deliver tremendous results and you can enjoy amazing prosperity without ever having to pound pavements for new clients. If you do it wrong, you can face some pretty serious punishment for spamming. You can even expect the Spanish Inquisition. So, watch out. The laws are becoming more and more stringent.

Let's review seven considerations for spam-free email marketing.

1. Building Your Own List

Now you may say you can get a compiled list from a list broker. Yes you can. The problem is that you don't know how those people got on that list. This is important because some people respond to email but ignore direct mail. Some respond to fax but ignore email. If you buy a list that was collected through fax or direct mail and you want to email to them, they won't respond, and there's not a sausage you can do about it.

And the more sophisticated the stuff you're selling is, the more careful you have to be with your list. If you sell cheap commodities for the lower echelon of your community, then this is not that important because these people respond to anything that is sufficiently cheap. But if you are selling complex technology services to the more affluent end of society, then you'd better be more careful with your list.

And one more thing. Building a good list takes some time. Don't expect instant success. This is like a flywheel. You have to work hard to get the momentum started and only then you can reap the rewards.

Sadly most technology companies' websites are not set up for ethically collecting qualified visitors' email addresses, and because of this mistake they lose tones of potential business. But when you have a system in place you're building your list in even your sleep. What can be sweeter than that?

2. Having a "Honey Pot"

By "honey pot" I mean an attractive bait of some kind that will attract the right prospects. It's vitally important that you set up your honey pot in such a way that it attracts prospects who fit into your ideal client profile and repels the ones who don't fit. For instance I would be a retarded idiot to use corporate-speak and tie and pinstripe language in my writings because that's what certain prospects would expect. Certain prospects maybe. But not mine.

Then I turn up at the meeting wearing my normal black jeans, black denim shirt and black denim jacket with a knife in my belt (I learnt as a boy scout to be prepared.), people who are not ready for this would freak out. So, I do polarise my audience from day one.

The minority who has the smarts to look a bit deeper under the surface even entertains the idea that, in spite of my rogue looks, I might be a somewhat intelligent creature. At least one or two notches higher than the demented bee. Although this is a very tiny group in our vanity-driven society, but that's fine for me.

So, what can be your honey pot?

It can be a white paper. Executive briefing, survival guide, etc. Give it a kick-arse title.

One more thing here. The world is flooded with newsletters. Nowadays you actually have to "sell" your free newsletter. And here too your honey pot will help. Lead your offer with your honey pot and offer the newsletter on the top. Forget about the small box in the corner that says, "Join our mailing list", "subscribe to our newsletter" or similar rubbish.

People don't want to join your mailing list. They have more than enough on their plates and they need your newsletter as much as a fish needs a bicycle. So, don't expect them to do something they have to seriously consider. Give them an easy option. For instance, "Seven Manufacturing Process Modifications You Must Absolutely Do After Installing Windows Vista On Your Network." This is very specific offer to a very specific market segment. It's an easy yes/no decision.

3. Getting Permission

Stay in touch only with people who give you permission to do so. This is just like dating. If I ask a woman out once, that's fine. But if she turns my offer down but I keep pestering her, then that's emotional spamming. Sooner or later either she reports me to the Police or decides to kick me in the "naughty bits" so hard that I lose any further interest in bothering her. So, make sure you have permission to stay in touch.

4. Providing an Easy Opt-Out

Some people stay some people leave. You have to offer people an easy way of getting off your list. Make sure that every message goes out with an "unsubscribe" link and that that "unsubscribe" link really takes them off the list. I've been receiving far too many messages simply because I can't unsubscribe. All right. I've tried. I even got the message that I had been taken off the list. And next morning the next email comes in from the same company. When that happens, I put the sending email into my block list, so it bounces back, but this shouldn't happen. I should be able to unsubscribe.

Be careful here. If your "unsubscribe" or "Remove from list" link doesn't work, you can be done for spamming and other despicable things can happen to you, including even the a surprise visit from the Spanish Inquisition.

5. Sending Only Valuable Information

If you have nothing to say then shut your mouth and don't waste your list members' time on reading useless stuff. However, if you can't come up with something valuable once a month, then this interesting question comes up: Are you really growing professionally? Hm.

Whatever you send, make sure your readers can see within five seconds that there is value in your message, and even if they don't read it, they save it and read it later. I receive a number of emails from so-called Internet gurus that are nothing more than repeated sales pitches. It's just diabolical how some of these poor bastards grovel for money.

And they offer all sorts of guarantees and zillions of dollars of bonuses if you buy their stuff within the deadline, and the deadline happens to be midnight of the day when you're reading it. The when I check the webpage source code, it turns out that the deadline is a clever script that advances the deadline every day when the clock strikes midnight. So, it's a bit scumbaggy.

So basically there is no deadline. We all know how much slime is flowing in cyberspace. Make sure your don't join the ranks of the slime balls, scumbags and sleaze merchants. First I called them sleaze warriors but cyber slugs like them don't really deserve this honourable title of a warrior.

And make sure you keep your unscheduled emails to the minimum. If your newsletter goes out monthly, then keep to it. Don't tire your audience with messages like "We hired Senior Ratcatcher, Fred Cringingnuts, MBA, to be our new CEO". Your readers don't care that much about what's going on inside your business. Yes, it's news, but doesn't warrant a separate message. You can send it out in a main message as a side note.

And don't become a pain in the arse by sending out daily messages. People get sick and tired of you before could say Jamima Puddle-Duck and they start deserting you and spreading bad words about your company.

6. Creating an Informative Newsletter

Although this is obvious, many technology newsletters are still nothing more than self-aggrandisement, pompous pontification and tons of advertisement.

You may think you can get rich on advertising money others pay you to profile them in your newsletter, but really and truly you are losing. You're losing your credibility as a professional. Hey, many computer consultants struggle to have credibility with their clients because their clients perceive them as peddlers of their "strategic partners" boxes. For many years, until Lou Gerstner came along, IBM consultants didn't have much credibility as consultants. They were vendors of "boxes."

They were perceived as peddlers of boxes, not true professionals. Of course! The corporate mantra was to peddle more mainframes whatever it takes. The solution to every computer problem happened to be a new "IBM box." It was Lou who changed the mantra to "solving the client's problem whatever it takes." And the first time in history IBM-ers were allowed to use solutions that are not made by IBM.

So, make triple sure that your newsletter is really a newsletter not an ad letter.

7. Displaying Your Privacy Policy

Everywhere in the world but especially in North America people are plain paranoid about being contacted by people they don't know. You can reduce this paranoia by displaying your privacy and spam policy in your messages.

The Direct Marketing Association has a privacy policy generator at http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/privacypolicygenerator.shtml. It 's free. This tool can help you to create your own privacy policy.

Create your privacy policy, put it online, and then in every message you send out, you can have a link to your policy page.

Actually you can expect your opt-in rate to go up as a result of having your privacy policy included in your messages. It elevates your trust level.

So, here you have it. What can you do to revamp your email marketing programme?


Attribution: "This article was written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan who helps privately held information technology companies to develop high leverage client acquisition systems and business development teams in order to sell their products and services to premium clients at premium fees and prices. Visit Tom's website at http://www.varjan.com.