Poor quality data is the downfall of many a good email marketing campaign, we see so many campaigns were the emphasis is on putting together a great looking document. Who it is sent to is often the area that is neglected, the mistake is to assume that sending out to thousands of people will work.
Often we see people trying to use lists that have been purchased – generally very cheaply and the source of the data is often foggy to say the least. The common mistake is to be blinded by large numbers and to think that this is successful marketing; shotgunning vast numbers of addresses in the hope that this will generate interest in your products and services.
Does it work then?
No, any marketing done using this method as at best detrimental to your businesses reputation and at worst illegal. Mailing consumer addresses that have not directly asked to be mailed by you is illegal – purchased lists have probably been harvested without the knowledge of the owner of the email address. Regarding business addresses, the recipient must have at some point opted in to receive marketing emails from third parties – so whilst the use of purchased lists containing business email addresses is not illegal, bombarding random people is neither effective or professional. At Email Blaster we don’t permit the use of our system for marketing in this way.
So what is the best way to generate email addresses?
Building your own database of clients and prospects is by far the best way to market your business, quickly building your own database is very straight forward. Add a sign up to your website, look for other places to add a sign up – such as suppliers, online directories. Ask your clients to recommend other people, contact prospective clients and ask to add them.
Taking the small amount of time required to generate your own subscriber database will yield constant results for years to come, it will also grow naturally. With successful targeting and list building you will find that email marketing will yield the largest ROI of your marketing spend, it is a quick and easy way to communicate with your target audience. This is perfect if your business carries stock and you need to put together physical stock offers, within minutes you can create a document and send it out.
To really get the most out of your email marketing, it is vital to quickly understand that it is not a method to shotgun thousands of random people – many of whom will be irritated by unsolicited marketing. The people that see sustained success and a favorable return on their marketing spend are the people that understand that email marketing if the best tool to communicate with a carefully selected target audience of interested parties.
