The Eight Deadly Sins of Email Marketing
from Ron Evans
Have you noticed the size of your inbox lately? It's true; many major marketers have gone big into email marketing. With the enormous growth in the number of messages sent, it was inevitable that plenty of unwelcome bad emails would be going out at the same time as good and effective ones. Here is a list of what NOT to do when using email marketing. This information has been compiled from actual emailed promotions we have received over the last few months.
- Don't send test messages to your entire email list
- Don't send MULTIPLE test messages to your entire list
- Don't send test messages with unprofessional text just in case it IS to your entire list
- Don't send out giant untargeted "spam" mailings
- Don't send out HTML emailings with broken links
- Don't send out un-optimized rich media emailings with large attachments that take a long time to download on a slow modem connection
- Don't send out HTML mailings accidentally as TEXT
- Don't send mailings to people who have asked to be REMOVED
Violate one or more of these rules and your marketing can instead become "anti-marketing", causing a negative brand image and losing potential customers. Email is an incredibly effective tool, but only when used correctly. Show respect to the individuals on your email lists, and pay careful attention to the details of the mailing itself, and you can reap the benefits of email marketing.
