6 common email marketing mistakes

14 years ago

Good post indeed. Aweber's posts are always very good. I like their newsletter a lot. Always some cool ideas. Thx for posting it!

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oneplusone

14 years ago

I agree with most of it, but the fact that you shouldn't contact your subscribers if you have not sent an e-mail to a list for 6 months I would disagree with.

As long as you refresh their memory (remind them they subscribed) and give them a good reason why you haven't e-mailed them for so long, you can continue as normal.

In fact in my experience, sometimes when you don't e-mail a decent list for a few weeks or even months the people on the list respect you far more.

You aren't one of the herd who is invading their inbox daily with bad english, poor grammar and constant cheesy sales pitches.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

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Steven Carl Kelly 14 years ago

Originally Posted by oneplusone

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Absence? I thought it was absinthe!
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- oneplusone 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly
  
  Absence? I thought it was absinthe!
  
  I've heard that one quite a few times lol
  
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  'If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.' Vincent Van Gogh.
  
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JustinPremick

14 years ago

Hi all,

Thanks for pointing out our articles & for the kind words! Hopefully they help you make your email marketing campaigns better.

One thing I'd like to provide some clarification on...

Originally Posted by oneplusone

I agree with most of it, but the fact that you shouldn't contact your subscribers if you have not sent an e-mail to a list for 6 months I would disagree with.

As long as you refresh their memory (remind them they subscribed) and give them a good reason why you haven't e-mailed them for so long, you can continue as normal.

Keeping in regular contact is important not only for subscribers to remember you, but (even if you're sure that they will) also to make sure that they are still actively using those addresses that they subscribed with.

As I'm sure you all know, people abandon email addresses. And as I'm also sure you all know, ISPs set up and track certain email addresses called spamtraps that shouldn't be on any email list.

What you may not know is that one way ISPs create such spamtraps is from those email abandoned addresses.

If an address is abandoned long enough, so the thinking goes, nobody managing their email list properly should still be emailing it. So following that line of reasoning, anyone still emailing that address after X amount of time is not managing their email list properly.

I'm not necessarily saying "X amount of time = 6 months" (that's not the sort of information ISPs share) but I am saying better safe than sorry. 6 months is an appropriate amount of time to make that cutoff. Email marketing best practices suggest that you should:

- Remove anyone who has not responded to an email (opened or clicked) in the past 6 months.

- Remove repeatedly undeliverable addresses, and email frequently enough that you can determine who those undeliverable subscribers are. (At AWeber, we automatically remove subscribers who are undeliverable 3 times in 60 days.)

In fact in my experience, sometimes when you don't e-mail a decent list for a few weeks or even months the people on the list respect you far more.

There's definitely such a thing as overmailing, and avoiding doing that is important. But undermailing can also present its own issues, as detailed above. Your mileage may vary, of course, but it's important to be aware of the issues present in both overmailing and undermailing.

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DogScout

14 years ago

Originally Posted by oneplusone

I agree with most of it, but the fact that you shouldn't contact your subscribers if you have not sent an e-mail to a list for 6 months I would disagree with.

Not to mention, after 6 months it is illegal for you to email them without re-opting in if there has been no contact.

(18 months IF they bought something from you... time starting from date of purchase.)

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KevL

14 years ago

Originally Posted by DogScout

Not to mention, after 6 months it is illegal for you to email them without re-opting in if there has been no contact.

(18 months IF they bought something from you... time starting from date of purchase.)

Legal Shmegal!

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Small business SEO / Web Marketing Tips.

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DogScout

14 years ago

Originally Posted by KevL

Legal Shmegal!

Lol. Probably legal in the UK. When I was in car sales, when the 'do not call' law came out, we got to spend three days at a law office for a seminar on it. For some of the limitations callers face, email was included. It isn't under the 'canned spam' act, that seminar was half a day by comparison. The 'do not call' act is a B***! Even the 'privacy act' seminar was a one day deal.
Lol.

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KevL

14 years ago

Originally Posted by DogScout

Lol. Probably legal in the UK. When I was in car sales, when the 'do not call' law came out, we got to spend three days at a law office for a seminar on it. For some of the limitations callers face, email was included. It isn't under the 'canned spam' act, that seminar was half a day by comparison. The 'do not call' act is a B***! Even the 'privacy act' seminar was a one day deal.
Lol.

Haha

Yeah there are different laws here - it's all a bit of a minefield if you look at all of the cans & can'ts - but I really don't think there's any point in emailing someone if you've not emailed them for a few months anyway, they'll not be responsive.

I think as long as you use something like Aweber (I love Aweber!! I've used 1shopping cart too, and otehrs, Aweber is my fave by far!) and you use just normal common sense also, I think most people will be fine.

What's the don't call act - is that like the "TPS" services we have over here in the UK? Here tehre's the Telephone Preference Service - and you have to screen databases against that, if you cold call someone & they're on the TPS register, you can get a fine of up to £5,000.

Cheers

Kev

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Small business SEO / Web Marketing Tips.

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DogScout

14 years ago

Originally Posted by KevL

What's the don't call act - is that like the "TPS" services we have over here in the UK? Here tehre's the Telephone Preference Service - and you have to screen databases against that, if you cold call someone & they're on the TPS register, you can get a fine of up to £5,000.

Cheers

Kev

Yep, except I think the fine is more here. $11K. The government likes the number 11 as much as IMers like the number 7. LOL.

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BrenDavis 14 years ago

great post man thanks
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KevL

14 years ago

Originally Posted by oneplusone

I agree with most of it, but the fact that you shouldn't contact your subscribers if you have not sent an e-mail to a list for 6 months I would disagree with.

As long as you refresh their memory (remind them they subscribed) and give them a good reason why you haven't e-mailed them for so long, you can continue as normal.

In fact in my experience, sometimes when you don't e-mail a decent list for a few weeks or even months the people on the list respect you far more.

You aren't one of the herd who is invading their inbox daily with bad english, poor grammar and constant cheesy sales pitches.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Sounds good in theory - Whenever I've let a list go stale for this legth of time though, it's just completely died. I tried a while ago to revive a list I'd neglected, people just don't expect to hear from you, and half of them forget who you are or why they subscribed.

I supposed it depends on what market, etc.

If you even leave it a few weeks & then send a broadcast - just have a look what happens to the unsubs / complaints %.

Cheers

Kev

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Small business SEO / Web Marketing Tips.

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noble

14 years ago

Great stuff.

I think the most important thing for lists is to provide a lot of good free info, PLR reports/products. I try to throw in a subtle sales pitch no more than once every 3-4 mailings. It keeps people on your list and keeps them reading every mailing.

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Zeus66

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Coby

I ran across this article and thought ya'll would like to see it.

6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes

Those are some good tips. I found this link at the bottom of that page, and there are some really good call to action tips on this page: Master The 3 A’s of Calls to Action

John

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Coby

14 years ago

Thanks Zeus! Thats a great article too! I didn't even see that one . . . bring it to your to find more value, lol.

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thebitbotdotcom

14 years ago

Both of those articles were great. Thanks for sharing them.

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michael_dans

14 years ago

The articles are good enough to teach the newbies some really important points but, if you could do a fairly good result then these points could be extended to a no. of 10. I have seen somewhere some other good points also which could be added to these 6 to make it a pack of 10.

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6 common email marketing mistakes

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