Keep Your Email Marketing Campaign from Becoming Spam
Online email marketing makes it possible for you to reach a wide range of customers, clients, vendors and prospects with new offers, promotions, updated prices and other timely information; and to send dozens, hundreds, even thousands of copies of the same mailing with just a few mouse clicks.
But for those very reasons, it's all too easy for your email marketing campaign to become part of the unwanted torrent of online email marketing clogging the mailboxes of the very people you want to do business with.
In other words, your email marketing campaign could become spam.
At best, your online email marketing will be ignored and deleted unread. At worst, your recipients may see your email marketing campaign as an annoyance, and filter out your business's email address. Worse yet, they may decide to opt-out of receiving your email marketing campaigns altogether.
What you need to know is that a variety of state and federal laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 place strict legal requirements on what can and cannot be done with online email marketing, and establishes policies your business must follow for an email marketing campaign.
For these reasons it's essential that you and your employees give careful thought to just how, and how frequently, you use online email marketing.
Asking yourself a few questions can help insure that your email marketing campaign (and your business!) is welcomed rather than dreaded, deleted and ignored.
Did You Give Them A Chance To Say No?
Every recipient on your email marketing campaign list should be given the opportunity to opt out of unsolicited email.
In fact, the CAN-SPAM Act requires that your email include a return address for the recipient to opt out of further online email marketing from you.
More than that, your Web site should include a clear and prominent announcement of exactly what your email policy is, and provide visitors the chance to decline online email marketing in advance.
Your site should also make clear whether or not you share your online email marketing list with other vendors.
Do You Have Something To Say?
Why are you sending the email? If it's a response to an inquiry or a "Request Information" box on your Web site you should be okay.
But if you've put together a generic or even targeted online email marketing campaign and are sending it to everyone on your mailing list you need to consider the following:
- Is the information new? Don't send the same promotions again and again.
- Is the information applicable to everyone on the mailing list? Don't send online email marketing to prospects not in the market for it.
- Is your subject line honest and clear? This is not only good business, it's a requirement of the CAN-Spam Act.
Have They Heard From You Lately?
You're the best judge of your customers and your market and you need to become the best judge of how frequently they want (or are willing) to receive online email marketing from you. It's a fine line you should be wary of crossing.
One good approach is to establish a regular schedule for sending email marketing campaign materials. A monthly or quarterly newsletter, depending on the amount of relevant, new information your business generates, creates a consistent approach for your online email marketing campaign without swamping recipients with material.
Is Your Online Email Marketing Campaign Professional?
Whatever approach you take to your email marketing campaign, all of your materials should be:
- Clearly written and proofread: even small, avoidable mistakes can create an unprofessional impression
- Accurately represent both your business and the recipient's relationship to you; don't, for example, use a generic "Dear Customer" salutation in a letter to prospective customers
- Complete and professional, including a way for the recipient to opt-out and your physical mailing address, another requirement of the CAN-SPAM Act.
The Bottom Line: Email marketing campaign materials should be relevant, requested, and worthwhile to the recipient. Don't overwhelm your customers with unsolicited email. All recipients must be given the chance to opt out of your online email marketing campaign. Email usage policies should be posted prominently on your Web site. Finally, adhere to all of the regulations and requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and you should see great success from this marketing channel.
Subscribe
