It may be hard to believe, but there once was a time when people were thrilled to get email. It was a novelty that everyone enjoyed and seeing that you had new email was fairly exciting. Then it became common place, in fact it became the standard way to communicate and do business. Then yet another change occurred and email became a part of the drudgery of the work place.
Over time email has evolved to be even more of a problem with the influx of spam and viruses, all ushered directly into your computer. Most of you that are reading this have been frustrated by an inbox stuffed full of junk mail, some of which is possibly dangerous. So as a business owner, the last thing you want to do is connect your company with the world of spammers and untrusted email-senders.
Let’s start by defining spam. Officially speaking, spam is unsolicited email and it is mostly advertising. Remember all those fliers and ads your home’s mailbox used to get stuffed full of, things like discounts on carpet cleaning and pizza? Spam is the electronic version of this, only since it is very cheap to send, and involves no printing and postage costs,it gets sent out in bulk!
Alongside of spam, you’ll have things that look like spam but are in fact viruses. People may open an email thinking they are learning about a deal on HVAC services in their area but instead they get infected by a computer virus. Between all the unwanted and intrusive advertising and potentially dangerous email, people have soured on the whole concept!
Now you may be thinking that this doesn’t have anything to do with your company. You may be under the impression that only questionable products end up as spam. This is a untrue, any company can become spam. Some online marketing programs are, at least in part, guilty of spam. For instance, along with some digital marketing packages you may receive “email blasts,” essentially sending out spam emails on your behalf. This is how you see largely recognized products as spam.
You yourself may be guilty of spam and not even realize it. If you buy email lists in hopes of sending out a newsletter or reaching out to one particular demographic or another, chances are that you’re spamming people. The reason is because many times these lists are not gathered properly, instead they are just filled with any email addresses that can be found. The result is sending unwanted mail to people that don’t care about your services!
You can avoid this entire trap by taking some precautions. First and foremost, make sure you do not blindly buy any online marketing campaign that involves email blasts. Sadly these are just too error prone to be reliable. Next, make sure you do not buy email lists from unreliable sources. Again, these are too easily corrupted, marking your company as a spammer.
How can you use email to expand your company’s reach? One good way is to gather email addresses yourself, ensuring that people know that you are going to email them. You can put a place on your website for people to entire their email and attend trade shows and networking events to gather business cards and emails. You can also scour the webs for real contact information from businesses that you’re interested in talking to and send them an introduction email, opening the door for communication.
Sure, these are not quick and easy methods, but they do prevent you from joining the unsavory ranks of spammers. If you need help figuring out how to effectively use email marketing for your business, we’d be happy to help, contact us today!