Digital Boomerang Singapore 

Email marketeers must rethink their strategies or face the consequence of diluting the notion of consensual marketing.

Spam is reeling out of control and something must be done about it. Local ISPs have set up special email accounts to help users report and deal with spam. Voluntary internet watchdogs have emerged to combat spam through sites such as spam.abuse.net and www.cauce.org.

The “ultimate curse” of email has also eroded the effectiveness of email marketing. Genuine marketing messages have been thrown out along with spam through the liberal use of the “delete” button. How else can users get to the email messages that really matter to them?

To be fair, it’s not just the spammers that have corroded away the concept of consensual marketing through email. Email marketeers have often over-used the vehicle and produced the unfortunate by-product of spam.

How then can marketeers ensure their email campaigns are effective?

The technical solution lies in deploying a robust reporting system that details the open rate, the clickthroughs and the time spent on each mailer. Tracking the number of concluded transactions will also give an indication of the return on investment for your campaign. That’s right, track it. Use technology to measure your campaign effectiveness.

Is that it?

Using ‘good’ technology to battle ‘bad effects of another good technology’ is hardly the answer marketeers should be looking for.

Let’s get back to first principles: the concept of consensual marketing through email.

Its latent power lies in users giving their explicit consent to receiving marketing messages. Users expect and want to be marketed to. In traditional media like broadcast and print, users opt-out by walking to the kitchen for a drink during TV commercials or by ignoring advertisements when reading the newspaper. If you still have no idea what I am yammering on about, read up “Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin. He’s the guru on the subject.

Yet in reality, few users truly consent to being marketed to. In a desperate attempt to raise marketing and advertising revenues, websites have resorted to bribing, and sometimes forcing, users to consent.

“Want free email? Here’s a 6MB account but you’ll have to agree to receiving marketing messages from our advertisers.”

“Want a 20% discount on your purchase? Well, you have to agree to all the terms of conditions of our website including receiving email marketing newsletters from our advertisers.”

“Sign up for our daily news alert! P.S. We will sometimes send you marketing messages too.”

Thankfully, some of these sites have been ‘generous’ enough to allow users to opt-out of their marketing lists. But once that happens, email marketing is as good as any other traditional media. You opt-out, instead of opting-in.

Does that mean email marketing is now just part of the marketing clutter that surrounds us? Has it transformed into the junkmail that greets us daily in our letterboxes?

Smart marketeers must avoid such trappings. Email marketing hasn’t lost its magic because the concept of consensual marketing still remains a powerful and compelling one.

The trick is to pick and choose the right databases to market to and stay away from spamming.

Check out website policies thoroughly before deciding to pay them for their database. Do they dangle carrots to get users to agree to being marketed to? When they ask users to update their profiles, do they explain that this is to ensure users get marketing messages that are valuable to them? Do they restrict the number of marketing messages that can be sent to their user base every month?

The strategy is to choose websites that are honest with their users and are committed to delivering marketing messages that bring value to their users. Websites that are protective of their users and have policies that do not clutter their users’ inboxes are the ones that will deliver the best audience.

- First published on IT AsiaOne, This is IT

Share This