How Facebook Does E-mail Newsletters II

Does Facebook roll you the welcome mat?

In October 2009, we analyzed an e-mail newsletter from Facebook titled Ads Manager Announcement that was directed to the  Facebook Ads users. This newsletter is a great example of how to implement permission marketing, how to avoid the brochure mentality, and how to do seamless product placement.

Below is a snapshot of another newsletter release for Facebook Ads users on January 19, 2010:

The newsletter design is good: short and informative.

However, there is one big problem with this newsletter: the no-reply e-mail address from Facebook.

The Problem with a No-reply E-mail

Conversations matter.

Yes, they really do. Think about this.

Would you want to talk with somebody who introduces himself as “Hi, I’m not interested in what you think, but let me tell you about this!”?

Probably not.

Scratch that. Absolutely not!

Facebook Ads is doing exactly that by using a no-reply e-mail:

The problem with no-repply e-mails was first pointed out by Seth Godin in his book, Permission Marketing, back in the 1990s, and yet still, 20 years later, there are still a lot of organizations (e.g. Facebook) using this conversation-killer e-mail address.

What about the Help Center mention?

The newsletter’s link takes you to the Facebook Help Center with a list of FAQs about Facebook Ads:

Still Facebook does not want to hear from you.

Don’t think so?

The contact form is buried on the website.

Here’s how it looks like:

If there is a way to reach Facebook directly with your question, why don’t make it simple for users to do so.  Facebook wouldn’t like that they needed to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out how to e-mail each one of its members, right?

Conclusion:  when doing e-mail newsletters make sure to make it as easy as possible for your e-mail recipients to contact you.

More info about Facebook and E-mail Marketing:

About the author: Since 2007 Damian Davila Rojas lives at Honolulu, Hawaii doing marketing, public relations, and web analytics. His research interests are viral marketing and how to use web metrics to make better strategic business decisions. Follow Damian on Twitter at @idaconcpts.

Author: Damian Davila

Ideas and concepts from Damian Davila, Ecuatoriano thriving in Hawaii. Pro marketer and blogger. Find him at @idaconcpts on Twitter.

4 thoughts on “How Facebook Does E-mail Newsletters II”

  1. You have focused on two very important aspects for marketing.
    I think directly replying back to emails is really important!

  2. what about female DJ who’s trying to make it in the music/DJ industry how would you go about this i am 17 female into hard house i have a pair cdj 400 and djm 400 mixer running vir dj via a lap top

  3. Hi Carry Flip,

    Designing an e-mail newsletter is always a good idea to generate sales leads and keep past customers in the loop.

    The first thing that you need to establish are the objectives of your e-mail campaign.

    Here are some places to get you started:

    Permission Marketing:

    E-mail Permission Marketing: It Works!
    E-mail Permission Marketing Fundamentals
    How to Measure the CTR of your E-mail Permission Marketing Campaign using Google Analytics
    A Guide to Permission Marketing

    Once you’ve a good idea of what you want to accomplish with your e-mail campaign, then you will have to select what e-mail service provider you want to use. There are many options and I suggest MailChimp.

    Best of luck,

    Damian

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