idaconcpts » email permission marekting campaign

e-Mail Marketing the Right Way: Provide Value

Zachary Zawarski — Mon, 03 May 2010 22:28:07 +0000

[This is a guest contribution by Zachary Zawarski of Zadling]

I don’t subcribe to many e-mail newsletters, but if I do choose to opt into your e-mail list, you better make sure that you’re doing one thing: providing me with value.

We all know that e-mail marketing is a great way to produce sales for your website, but many business owners make the mistake of using mailing lists purely to push their products and services. That is the wrong way to conduct e-mail marketing.

Establish Trust

The best way to gain customers is to establish trust. e-Mail marketing should be about building relationships. Ask the reader to contribute to your blog or follow you on Twitter and make sure that you communicate with them consistently. You’ll also want to make sure that you are providing the readers of your newsletter with tips and resources that help solve their needs. By doing this, you will be viewed as an expert in your field. Once you gain the status of an expert, you have gained your customer’s trust, and then they will be willing to purchase your products and services.

What’s In It For Me?

To encourage your website’s visitors to sign up for your newsletter, you’re going to have to engage in a little bribery. All people really want to know is “what’s in it for me?” Present an offer: “Subscribe to my e-mail newsletter and you’ll receive my free eBook on [insert area of expertise].” Then once you have the customer as a subscriber, don’t forget to keep supplying them with valuable information. Once you have their trust, they will become your customers.

Good and Bad Birthday Emails

Damian Davila — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:28:02 +0000

Yesterday was my birthday.

Yay!

I received gifts!

Yay!

I received one great birthday gift via e-mail and I felt like the kitty going “nom nom nom”.

I received one terrible birthday gift via e-mail and I felt like the kitty going “nooo it are my birthday”.

Here’s the story of one company that sucks at doing birthday themed e-mails, and another company that got its stuff together.

The Bad Birthday E-mail

Hey, nice cake picture!

So nice that Macy’s remembered!

FREE SHIPPING! That rocks!

Until you read the fine print:

Due to size and/or weight, certain items bear a shipping surcharge, which will still apply. When shipping to multiple addresses, only shipping to the first address will be free; Standard Shipping will apply to all other addresses. Free Shipping offer cannot be applied to purchases being shipped to Alaska, Hawaii, US Territories or APO/FPO addresses.

Hey Macy’s but I live in Hawaii!

What’s the point of sending me a gift that I cannot use?

You might argue that I could save the free shipping code to use it on a future purchase, however the expiration date is April 30, 2010. Less than 60 days is too short of a time frame for me to make a purchase at Macy’s.

Learn from Macy’s failure: If you segment your mailing list by a specific field (e.g. date of birth) make sure to double check (make that triple check!) that the e-mail is applicable to all members of that segment. This “free shipping” e-mail promo shouldn’t go to registered Macy’s users with mailing addresses in Alaska, Hawaii, US Territories and APO/FPO addresses.

The Good Birthday E-mail

Hey, nice gift picture!

So nice that Nature Made remembered!

FREE POINTS! That rocks!

NO RESTRICTIONS! Woohoo!

IT ONLY TAKES 1 CLICK TO GET MY GIFT! Even better!

Nature Made has a program called Wellness Rewards that lets you earn valuable rewards when you use Nature Made Vitamins and Supplements. You bank the Wellness Rewards code sfound on Nature Made bottles and packages and then you can earn rewards including coupons worth up to $7 off Nature Made products, exercise DVDs, pedometers, etc.

Learn from Nature Made’s success: Birthday e-mail promos don’t have to necessarily be an instant monetary reward, as long as they are highly relevant to the interests of your target audience (I have banked so far 2,735 points at the Wellness Rewards program). Make the gift/offer actionable and automatic after 1 click. No fine print, no restrictions: it’s a birthday gift!

Another company that is doing great e-mail newsletters is Shutterfly with its product, Wink.

How Facebook Does E-mail Newsletters II

Damian Davila — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:55:23 +0000

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.

A Guide to Permission Marketing

Damian Davila — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:24:01 +0000

For more info, check out:

A Guide to Permission Marketing

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