Email Marketing

Digiteyes · Share | #1 (**permalink**) 10-29-2003, 05:44 PM

I read Bubo's article on why it doesn't work, but I'd like to hear experiences folks have had. Good, bad, or otherwise.

I'm not talking spam, well I don't know, maybe I am... but what if you're not trying to directly sell anything, you just have something to offer. Let's say quality content that would be of interest to a specific group, or some kind of promotional give-away ...still a waste of time?

Whadya think?

eyelfixit · #2 (**permalink**) 10-29-2003, 09:53 PM

Promotinal giveways = free = bad

COntent = depends on material and if targeted= not sure.

my

Digiteyes · #3 (**permalink**) 10-29-2003, 10:06 PM

why free=bad?

give-aways/spiffs are pretty much standard and somewhat expected in this industry. Most are tied to stupid scratch-off games or other sillyness. We want to tie them continuing education type material as part of a marketing campaign with a much larger corp. In other words, read an article on the web page, take a test, and get a T-shirt ...or something like that.

Content is definitely targeted.

Marcel · #4 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digiteyes

why free=bad?

Because the free crap we keep throwing around canibalizes into our sales. Most of the times when people/business offer free stuff, they do it unconditionally, hoping the chump will buy something if he's tried it for free. Well, the chump ain't that much of a chump anymore, so he knows damn well how to find your just-as-stupid-as-you competitor who will also give him free stuff, in hope of hooking him on the product.

I'm not saying that giving away free stuff is bad altogether, I'm just saying that doing it unconditionally, more often than not, results in the chump playing you for a chump. Sure, give them lots of stuff for free! But do it on a condition, that they buy, and relate the size of the free gift to the size of the purchase. After all, if you keep giving away your business for free, do you think your landlord will do the same with you?

Bubo · #5 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 07:24 AM

Marcel makes a good point about making a free item giveaways conditional. Item giveaway's are a better tool to reinforce existing customers, rather than gaining new customers. It does more for your brand and reinforces customer loyalty by saying "Hey! You're such a great customer that we are going to give this to you, as a token of our appreciation!" With an item giveaway, they also have a physical item to remind them about your company.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I have never used an email marketing campaign. I first started a commercial presence on the internet about a month before the spam "explosion" occurred, and the community backlash that I witnessed convinced me to stay away from that technique.

There is one type of free giveaway that I strongly recommend. Information giveaway, which is usually referred to as content. I would recommend either developing quality, free content to provide on the products that you sell, or forming a strong relationship with a site that provides free content on your products. Customers who will purchase your product will be looking more for information on the product before they look for prices, to ensure that they are not getting a lemon. If you can get your company in front of them during this information lookup, or better still provide the information yourself, then they are more likely to choose you over your competitors, even if your competitors have the better price. By providing quality content on your product, you are establishing the concept that you are an "expert" in that product, and that status builds up their trust in you. An expert won't try to con them into buying a bad product, right?

Just some food for thought.

Digiteyes · #6 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 07:56 AM

I agree completely about the content, in fact that's what our site is all about, both product content and industry related educational content. The free stuff wouldn't be given away unconditionaly, it would require the completion of an "online course" in a campaign designed to raise awareness of the site and the content it provides.

..that's the bottom line: raising awareness of the site and its content.

Bubo · #7 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 08:00 AM

In that case, you've satisfied the conditional on your free giveaway. *nod* Unfortunately, we still haven't received an answer about people's experiences with email campaigns. Anyone here ever used an email campaign in the past? There's not shame involved, we need to know for educational purposes.

Also, what's your site digitaleyes?

Digiteyes · #8 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 08:06 AM

http://www.laramyk.com

It's an optical wholesale lab. We grind prescription lenses for opticians, optometrists, and ophthamologists who have their own finishing labs. They order the uncut lenses from us and then finish them to fit their patients' frames.

Digiteyes · #9 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 07:36 PM

So nobody's done any email marketing? ...really?

John Scott · #10 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 09:21 PM

I used to do "email marketing" - if that's what you want to call it. It was spam. It was targeted spam. We used lists that were supposedly the targeted audience.

It's pretty much worthless IMO.

Digiteyes · #11 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 09:48 PM

That's what I want to hear. Yeah, I guess its spam. I guess when you boil it down, most spam is an attempt to bring traffic to a site, which is what I am trying to do.

So what kind of spamming did you do? It apparently was unfruitful, eh?

John Scott · #12 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 10:26 PM

I send out spam by the tens of thousands. It pissed off thousands of people, and resulted in maybe 10 sales per ten thousand.

Rob · #13 (**permalink**) 10-31-2003, 01:33 AM

I have a newsletter with 50k subscribers which does okay. A friend of mine has 200k subscribers and he makes a living.

All opt-in by the way.

Gede · #14 (**permalink**) 10-31-2003, 03:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digiteyes

http://www.laramyk.com

It's an optical wholesale lab. We grind prescription lenses for opticians, optometrists, and ophthamologists who have their own finishing labs. They order the uncut lenses from us and then finish them to fit their patients' frames.

Now thats a "small" site. But I suppose the readers all have good eyesight, (or glasses)

LazyJim · #15 (**permalink**) 10-31-2003, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gede

Now thats a "small" site. But I suppose the readers all have good eyesight, (or glasses)

Yeah, maybe they should start with big writting: "If you can't read the text below click here to order our special magnification lenses!"

that menu on the left cracks me up haha! all those spliced images instead of a repeat bg and text!

edbarton · #16 (**permalink**) 10-31-2003, 05:17 AM

You know their website doesn't even fill up the whole screen on a 640x480 resolution

LazyJim · #17 (**permalink**) 10-31-2003, 05:32 AM

quite ironic I think

anyway, not everyone realises that their site doesn't look the same on all computers, seems obvious to us, but, well, it's our job to know these things!

I think I might write some begginer's guides that are more up-to-date with standards and recent issues.

Their LEARN section of the site is great and got lots and lots of content!