Beginner at Email Marketing

5 replies
Learned a lot on the Offline section of WF...cold calling especially.

Implementing email-marketing into my marketing campaigns and boy I was faced with a load of questions before I actually got into it.

I'll be hitting a very specific list of people, nope they didn't sign up or anything, but they probably might be interested in my services. I'm thinking of doing a very "personal" approach with them.

"Hi I'm Bob from Company X, we do xx...let me know if we can be of help to you" Nothing pitchy, nothing salesy. Subject is probably "Regarding your site" Included my number so they can call if they want.

I've read the can-spam policy. Few things I would like to ask:

1. Been using outlook for my mails, read some threads and Mailchimp was mentioned. Is this really required if the mails I sent out aren't salesy?

2. If I would like to send to a list of like 400, will outlook do? (Putting all into 'BCC'?)

3. Ive been hearing about domain forwarding etc to prevent blacklisting, would love if someone could enlighten me more about that. Would hate if I used my main domain and got flagged as spam.

Would appreciate the help from you guys, thanks
#beginner #email #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author Paid2Learn
    You might want to consider contacting each of them personally and let them know that you have a new website which will provide good content consistently to them. You can entice them to join your newsletter by offering some special offer. In this way, they themselves join your list and you should not have any problem with any autoresponder services.
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    • Profile picture of the author bsbear
      Originally Posted by Paid2Learn View Post

      You might want to consider contacting each of them personally and let them know that you have a new website which will provide good content consistently to them. You can entice them to join your newsletter by offering some special offer. In this way, they themselves join your list and you should not have any problem with any autoresponder services.
      Yeah go the legit offline way. Just promote your email list... and gain subscribers. Offer free content/offers like sales/stuff. Whatever it takes or your potential clients.
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  • Profile picture of the author kazim
    Very good information for beginners.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimD
    Unisons, I've done a lot of email marketing for about the last 3 years. My experience is somewhat different from what you've seen above. My approach is direct response to mass cold lists.

    Here's some feedback that might be valuable.

    The legal definition of spam is different from the casual definition. The CANSPAM act prohibits you from sending deceptive emails to businesses, not unsolicited emails. The FTC has a one-pager on how to comply with the CANSPAM act. It's easy to understand. I recommend it to you. Essentially, it says: be upfront that this is a commercial solicitation, let people know who you are and where you're physically located, let people opt out easily (preferably in one click), and honor their opt-out when they send it.

    If you're doing mass emailing of this type and you hope to get a response, you MUST have an offer (free web repair, free video, free page one of Google, free video web marketing evaluation...). "Hi, I create websites, why don't you spend $1,000 with me." is really weak and will get you a weak response or angry responses.

    Also, when you're doing mass offers, you're just letting the offer do the work. Nothing that you write in the email will be "clever" enough to persuade people to pick up an offer they don't want otherwise. So, it's not a bad idea to put the offer in the subject line.

    What you can do in the email is reduce friction/resistance to an offer your prospect might otherwise want. You can add testimonials, direct them to your website, give them an example of what you're talking about. So, near the top, I say, "You'll find some sample testimonials from my clients below my signature".

    Also, you can teach people to treat you nicely. My opt-out, for example says - PPS. I want to help you not bug you. If you are already happy with your web marketing or you're working with someone you trust, just reply with "No Thanks!" in the subject line and I'll make sure you don't hear from us again.

    I get several very nice - No thanks - from a mailing to 1,000 people. I rarely get flamed - usually about 1 in every 1,000 to 2,000 will flame me.

    Follow up your offer email once. Send them a note offering something in addition. Hello, about 2 weeks ago I offered to shoot you a video. I'm guessing you've been busy. I still think I can help your business. If you like, I'd be happy to (also do this for you, or take the original offer up a notch, or etc.). If that sounds good to you, just drop me a line at...

    I've always gotten nice responses from this. Never a flame.

    Outlook can be tough. You can usually send about 15 to 25 at a time and have it go through. So, it's not good on big lists. Mailchimp will let you import a list of 500. But I've found it a big hassle. You can put together a spreadsheet. Put it up on Google docs. And get someone from odesk to send them one by one for you through gmail. You can also use something like SendBlaster. I actually prefer SendBlaster because I am super concerned about honoring opt-outs and SendBlaster is very good about handling mailing lists and opt outs. They also let you set the frequency so you can send int he background very slowly.

    Hope that's helpful.
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  • Profile picture of the author AnalyticsNerd
    Regardless of legal stuff, you should really try to think your newsletter efforts in a manner that would make people want to continue to receive and read your stuff.

    Find a subject that you are passionate about, read and practice, get some important insights and then share those with your audience, then you will eventually build up a list of loyal subscribers that will help you spread the word about your excellent products and services.
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