Email Marketing or SPAM?

The fast growth of the internet means that now when the word SPAM is mentioned most people think ‘unsolicited emails’ instead of ‘canned meat.’ SPAM is associated with companies sending emails full of irrelevant information or emails that contain viruses.

The assumption that email marketing is SPAM is unfortunate as when used correctly email marketing is a fantastic tool to reach your audience and pass on information effectively.

Marketing is plagued by the argument that it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of a method. However email marketing can be measured. By setting up analytics you can see who has opened it, whether they have clicked on a link and been taken to the website or just deleted it.

Email marketing can drive traffic to your website by providing links to take customer to certain areas of the website. It can also remind people of your existence and raise awareness so your company is at the top of their mind.

Because of there being no official regulations it is easy for any company who has internet access and a list of email addresses to create a distribution list and send out an email.

Here are 5 tips on how to use email marketing as a positive tool to promote and engage customers with your company:

1. Content
The content of the email should be interesting and relevant to the customers who receive it. It shouldn’t be an email full of the ‘hard sell’ neither should it contain boring information that has no impact on the individual. This can be achieved by making sure the writer of the content has previous experience and understands this fundamental point.

2. Compatibility
Ok, so you have the content perfected, the distribution list of willing recipients made, you click send. But they can’t view it...
Make sure that the format is compatible with their systems and the fonts used can be opened by the internet browser.

3. Integrate
Email marketing by itself is effective but when integrated with other marketing tools such as social media its effectiveness is drastically increased. Consumers are already involved with your company and chose to engage with it on social media sites so the next progression would be to infiltrate their inbox. They will recognise it and therefore it won’t be seen as SPAM, rather as an extension of their engagement.

4. Scheduled
Just because email marketing is comparably cheaper than running a direct mail campaign of the same size do not abuse this. Emails should be sent on a periodical basis to make sure they aren’t over used and consequently ignored.

5. Opt out
Email recipients should have an option to opt out. There should be a clear and easy procedure to follow which should be honoured by the company. If the recipient continues to receive emails after this they will often then develop a negative association with the company.

By following the tips above and embarking on the process with a design company who has previous experience make sure that you are using email marketing to its full potential.


Article Written by Carli Smith


Visit Inferno Designs for more on Email Marketing, Company Branding and Web Design.