Email Marketing
It’s been a while and we’ve been really busy on some major projects for clients but just lately we’ve been hearing some really bad advice going around this town about how to use emails to market your product and it’s time the right advice was put out there.
We’ve also been on the receiving end of some spam from a small business here in Hervey Bay that’s obviously taken that advice so I thought I should take a few moments to point out some basic facts about email marketing just in case you’re thinking about doing some.
Email marketing can be effective
There’s no doubt that email marketing can be effective … you can make sales by advertising your products via emails to potential buyers. However recent figures from a survey done by Marketing Sherpa show that email marketing may not be as effective as you might think.
Marketing Sherpa surveyed 1500 online marketers and they found that for every 100 emails those surveyed sent out only four would result in sales. Around 25% might actually open the email … 14% might click from the email through to your website but only 4% would actually buy whatever it was that was advertised in that email.
Where did you get your email list from?
We recently received some email spam from a local business and when I contacted them to find out where they got my email address from I was curtly informed that they had compiled their email list by phoning local people and asking them if they would like to receive emails from this business.
Well no one from that business actually phoned us and a friend who got a similar email from the same business never got a phone call either.
Many small businesses think that it’s quite ok to go trawling through local online directories for links to the websites of local businesses so that they can grab the contact email addresses and add them to the list they’re compiling.
Compiling a list in that way will not protect you from prosecution if someone lodges a spam complaint with the ACMA.
Opt-in and Double Opt-in lists
If you want to compile a list of people who would be interested in receiving marketing emails from you then build your list the right way. Have a link on your website asking people to sign up for your emails … a list compiled in that way is known as an opt-in list. There’s software available that will help you compile such a list.
It’s always a good idea to add another layer of protection for yourself and move up from a simple opt-in list to a double opt-in list. The double opt-in list works in the same way as the first list does but before it adds a person’s email address to your list it emails them and asks them to confirm that they want to be on your email list.
If they don’t confirm by clicking a link in that email then their email address is not added to your email list. Once again, there’s software that will help you compile and manage such a list.
Opt-out
Once you’ve compiled your email list the compliance work isn’t over yet. Every time you send out an email to your lists it must contain a link that allows the recipient to remove their name from your email list.
If you don’t include a working opt-out link you’re in breach of the laws governing the sending of emails within Australia and the penalties are harsh.
For more information about how to avoid being branded as a spammer when you want to email people to offer them your products go to the ACMA website and follow the links on the left-hand side of the screen.
Email marketing is basically a two-edged sword. If you do it right it can work for you … if you do it wrong the fines and penalties can destroy your business.