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Spam is like a snowball you see in a cartoon. It starts out really small, but as it starts to roll downhill, it gains momentum while getting bigger and bigger at an alarming rate. The small snowball is analagous to having a new email address that no one knows about - it's spam free!
But, once one unscrupulous person or company gets a hold of it, the snowball begins to roll. First there's an occasional spam message every few weeks or so. Then they start coming once a week. Then once a day. Then a few each day. Then a few more each day...until it seems your inbox is nothing but spam.
At this point, you might start purchasing anti-spam software, buying anti-spam services, utilizing built-in email program spam controls and the like (if you haven't already). Or, if it's a throw-away email address (like my_disposable_email_address@yahoo.com), it's time to close the old email address and open up a new one. At some point, it just takes time and effort to keep your Inbox clean and manageable when you didn't have to do that in the beginning.
CONSUMER AND MARKETER'S ISSUES
But aside from the issues spam generates from a consumer's point of view, it causes me concern from a marketer's point of view, too.
We send out various newsletters, subscriber courses, and the like via email to those who request it, but I know for a fact that many people aren't getting them and/or reading them. Why? Legitimate email can be blocked by well-meaning anti-spam measures such as those mentioned earlier.
Furthermore, if a user is in the "big snowball" stage where they are getting a boatload of spam every day, there's a much better chance that they'll miss our newsletter (or billing notice or whatever) because it's hidden among the 50 spam messages they also just received.
So if you use email as one of your marketing methods, what actions can you take to give your email the best shot at getting to your recipients, not to mention give you the highest chance that your prospects will open your email and take action?
WHO'S IT FROM?
According to the DoubleClick 2003 Email Consumer Study, who the email is from is THE most important determining factor as to whether or not the recipient will even consider opening a promotional email.
So, if you are sending your emails out from "Mary Joanna Plant," there's a strong change no one will even consider opening your email. People tend to move to the next step only if they recognize and trust the sender of the email.
SUBJECT LINE
Once a person has moved past the "who's it from" stage, the next most important factor is the subject line. People are more likely to open the email if the subject references a discount or special offer.**
You need to be VERY careful here, however. Many anti-spam programs will block emails that contain FREE or GUARANTEED and other "spam trigger" words in the subject line.
To get an idea of some of the words tested and the results of whether they were blocked or not, see http://www.spamassassin.org/tests.html (look near the middle of the report where they test words in the subject line). Now, each anti-spam program works differently, but you can see some of the more popular spam trigger words they tested here.
TAKING ACTION
Once the recipient trusts the sender and is intrigued by the subject line enough to open the email, the ad copy itself will determine whether or not the recipient takes the next action -- clicking on a link in the email, calling a phone number, sending a reply email, etc. There are entire courses on this subject, so I won't go into detail here on how to write effective ad copy.
However, according to the DoubleClick report**, the top two reasons someone took an action after opening an email were:
- They needed the item at the time email was sent.
- The email provided a discount or special offer.
So, when designing your ad copy, see how you can convey to your recipient why they need your product NOW then combine it with some special offer or discount. Perhaps send them an offer not available to the general public.
BUY LATER, NOT NOW?
Based on the consumer group DoubleClick sampled, just over 25% of the recipients said they bought something after they clicked on an email they received. But over 33% ended up buying at a later date. In other words, they may have clicked on a link in the email today, but not purchased until a week later (for example).
This is a crucial piece of information! This underscores the need of getting your product or service in front of your potential prospects more than once.
But how do you do that? Here's one way.
TELL THEM AGAIN (AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN)
First, you should know WHO is clicking on your promotional emails. How can you figure that out? Well, some email providers can do that for you! But if they don't or you're on your own, you'll need to be a little more creative. Let's take an example of how you might do this.
The link you provide in your email message should contain a reference to the recipient. For example, the link in the email John Smith receives might be
http://www.mydomain.com/click.asp?email=john@smith.com
The link in the email Jane Jones receive might be
http://www.mydomain.com/click.asp?email=jane@jones.com
You can and should be able to dynamically insert your recipient's email address (or id number) in the link by the company or program that sends out your email.
The click.asp page would then collect the email=name@domain.com portion of the URL and record that information somewhere, like in a database, then redirect the visitor the desired web page. Now, you have all the email addresses of the people who clicked on the link in your promotional email stored in your database.
Once you have that list of interested customers, maybe a few days later, send them a follow up email. Present your offer in a different way. Or present them with new information. Or a new, limited-time offer. In any case, you now know who you can follow up with and increase your chances of making a sale. Just be sure you don't send a follow-up email to those who have already purchased from you!
THAT'S A LOT OF WORK
Yes, it used to be much easier to send out promotional email to those who have requested it, but because of the actions of those who send out spam, it's made the jobs of the legitimate marketers that much harder. However, according to DoubleClick, those that put in the effort are reaping with rewards with higher click-through rates and sales. It may not be as simple as clicking a button to improve your bottom line, but if it were, everyone would be doing it.
***DoubleClick 2003 Consumer Email Study - http://www.doubleclick.com/us/knowledge_central/documents/research/dc_consumeremailstudy_0310.pdf
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