One message mess up your entire email marketing list? How could that be?
Today was the day, the day that I decided to filter my email messages even further. I have (like many people) become overwhelmed (again) with too many emails!
Today I was sad, I got a message from someone who I like a lot and have been “friends” with on the internet for a while. He generally sends out great info but has obviously changed something in his business model to include sending out more affiliate marketing messages. Look back on his recent “stuff” I see that he is no longer sending good info, but is mostly pushing out the crap that a million other marketers are sending.
So what did I do?
- Unsubscribe, nope, there was some good stuff in all that crap still.
- Send him a scathing email with lots of caps and exclamation points to show my displeasure and make him feel bad? Nope, this America and he has the right to conduct his business however he sees fit.
- Blast him on the social media for selling out? Nope, I see too much of that (and get a little bit from haters too).
Effectively what I did was send him to the seventh level of my email hell, I told Google to skip the inbox with his messages and put them into the IM Marketing People…a list of people who send me interesting things, free content during launches and whose messages I take a peek at “when I have time”.
So think about this, he went from a trusted source of information to someone who will never see the light of day again. While I will see his info on Facebook (when they think it is important to me, but that is a post for another day), he will not have the ability to contact me directly anymore.
So What Should You Send In Your Email Marketing Newsletter? (and how often?)
These are big questions in my marketing world right now! I am sending more emails than I did in the past BUT have targeted my list so that people only get what they want (social media, small biz marketing, realtor related stuff, etc.) This allows me to send messages that will make a difference to the people who read them, without annoying the other people on my list. (I use Office Auto Pilot for my email database because it is VERY robust and the guys there are really helpful setting it up, something like iContact or Infusionsoft would also work in this manner – yes Virginia, that is an affilate link).
What I figured out is that good information sent with honorable intent is a good thing and should be fine. I based this on the fact that I send my “peeps” (real friends in the real world) stuff that helps them and I was doing a disservice to my community by not sharing great tidbits with them too! If you would like to join my marketing community – sign up for great marketing info!
That having been said, what constitutes acceptable levels of selling and what rate should it be coming out?
Here are some examples of the email newsletters I read, how often they come out and why they have stayed out of gmail folders:
- One marketer sends me a message every day with (1) something relevant that happened and which I should know about – yesterday he sent that Yahoo Site Explorer got shut down, I am devastated but not about to shoot the messenger and (2) two affiliate links to products he is pushing for profit. Because he has a huge staff of researchers who work on the good bits, I am happy to get his info and just overlook, for the most part, the affiliate links. I DO buy HIS stuff because I like how he presents.
- One marketer who spends a TON of time on his email newsletter each month. I always find something great in there and take the time to read pretty regularly. I have even posted on my social media about why you should join it, a bonus to him as there is nothing in it for me!
- About 20 people who send sporadic emails with great content and who I like “personally” though I have never met them. I KNOW that I am going to get a marketing message from time to time, but there is ALWAYS something good to go along with it!
So should be terrified to send email newsletters? Nope! Just make sure you are proud of the information that you are pushing out there and make a conscious decision of how you are going to present yourself. BELIEVE ME, big time marketers have made BA-GILLIONS sending spammy messages, and you can too, just do you really want to? Most of my readers are true small biz owners who are in it for the long haul and who do not want to burn their lists.
Moral of the story, send out more email newsletters, make them great, KNOW that people will unsubscribe but that you are doing good!
