Email Marketing Friend or Foe?

[UKMarketeer]

Just thought I'd pose this question to the forums and gather your thoughts on Email Marketing.

Has it worked for you?

[Danny@BFC]

I'd also be interested in responses to this, particularly thoughts on targeted paid for email lists.....I dont have have my own list as of yet and am considering buying one to test it.

[GreenLaser]

"I dont have have my own list as of yet and am considering buying one to test it."

I kinda guess i have read quite a few posts on this subject over the months , the biggest issue i beleive is AFTER you have bought the list is how to get it out there , all the big legitimate email campaign providers who can actually get your emails delivered by being whitelisted at the ISPs DONT allow bought lists

An alternative i to set up your own server etc which is hard cost ise and technically , but getting whitelisted at the ISPs is the difficult bit !

A few years ago i tried the scattergun approach , buying random lists , results were almost non exisitant and also the targetted approach buying specific emails related to specfic prvious purchases and results were almost non exisitant

My own experience with my own opt in lists , for real life product sales is about 12% openings of emails , typically 2% bounces and less than 1% conversions rising to as high as 3% in nov / dec

So in essence if you have a decent list of past customers its definately good value to keep in touch with them ...and it pays its way ...
other approaches ...mmmmmmmm .. for me not much success

[UKMarketeer]

We have our own list as well however the response rates are very low.
I am considering the use of Email Marketing companies with pre defined lists. The only problem is that I see it the monitoring of the emails. Some provide stats and some do not.

I would ideally like to see stats live not a report once a month....

I'll wait and see?

[Pete Crane]

I kinda guess i have read quite a few posts on this subject over the months , the biggest issue i beleive is AFTER you have bought the list is how to get it out there , all the big legitimate email campaign providers who can actually get your emails delivered by being whitelisted at the ISPs DONT allow bought lists

That's largely correct, and it's down to the point you mentioned next....

getting whitelisted at the ISPs is the difficult bit !

And once you are recognised as a trusted sender by the major ISPs then you're not going to let someone wreck it either - hence the point-blank refusal to allow people to use anything other than opt-in lists

An alternative is to set up your own server etc which is hard cost-wise and technically

You have to look beyond the setup as well; maintaining it can be a very expensive business. When it comes to email marketing, going in-house is the worst decision just about any business can make.

My own experience with my own opt in lists , for real life product sales is about 12% openings of emails , typically 2% bounces and less than 1% conversions rising to as high as 3% in nov / dec

Those figues are decent enough but can be improved. I handled a quick project for an organisation last week which resulted in 31% open rate and 8% click thru, with the bottom line stat of their revenues doubling this week. And I'm positive that as this was a pilot there's a lot more room for improvement for them too.

We have our own list as well however the response rates are very low.
I am considering the use of Email Marketing companies with pre defined lists. The only problem is that I see it the monitoring of the emails. Some provide stats and some do not.

I would ideally like to see stats live not a report once a month....

I'll wait and see?

If you're suffering from low results then it's better to have a good review of your overall strategy, but in the short term take a look at the content of your messages, as this may well be the fundamental reason for low stats.

Whether you choose to go with a commercial mailer is up to you, but to be honest I don't see any benefit to you. Pretty much across the line they've been hit with falling subscribers, and their RoI just isn't great as the shallow level of targeting they do means you're unlikely to reach many people who truly want to know more about you. As for monitoring, I've never really liked the way a lot of them spoon-feed the stats out.

I would suggest not giving up on your self-built opt-in list yet, there is bound to be some gold in there. It just needs some sifting, that's all. :)

[Snippa]

Personally, I believe it has something to do with how you use your list... what you send them. And I'm talking about your own opt-in list. If all you ever do is send them sales messages and ask something from them, it's doubtful they're going to be as responsive. I believe wholeheartedly in offering something of value - free or VERY low-cost information, bonuses, etc. - that will let your customers know that you care about meeting their needs, not just making a dollar for yourself. It makes a difference to me when I receive an email message. If all I ever receive are sales letters, I'll unsubscribe very quickly. But if I get good information along with the sales talk, I'll read what the people have to say. Just my thoughts from the other side of this marketing coin. ;)

[brain]

E mail marketing should not be at the initial phase of marketing. It should be later in the que. It depends upon the nature of your services if it can work or not. It must be used to complement other marketing activities but must not be used as the core of your marketing. In most of the cases it does fail to produce any meaningful results.

[Pete Crane]

E mail marketing should not be at the initial phase of marketing. It should be later in the que. It depends upon the nature of your services if it can work or not. It must be used to complement other marketing activities but must not be used as the core of your marketing. In most of the cases it does fail to produce any meaningful results.

er, pardon?

[thewashbiz]

Its low results, i used to run business a few years back which used email marketing and its down to data quality. how fresh it is, etc.

[4little1s]

On the whole, yes for us. The stats for actual conversion to a sale are not very high they are always interesting and think that may be down to content to be critical of oneself. Based on our own list, a number of recent sales have been from people forwarding the email on to someone else which I am always pleased about.

[camweb]

They have worked for companies I have done them for but I feel this is mainly down to the quality of lists they have. The lists of emails are put together by offering something for free on their website such as a download or a voucher, all the website user needs to do is enter their name and email address. Over time you can build up a large list of addresses for people who are interested in your product or service.

[local-biz-man]

It has to be permission based to work.

Yes e-marketing is a very good customer retention tool, you can send newsletters to your current customer base to keep your brand fresh and keep them coming back to you. But if you are sending to lists, approaching for new business, then you have to choose wisely.

If you are thinking of purchasing your own lists and doing it yourself, then you are MAD!!!

It will work out very expensive, even renting the lists for one time use only is pricey. Then there is the time it will take and really you will need a bespoke designed template if you want to make a good impresion. Plus most of your e-mails will go through to SPAM BOXES unless you are sending through a white listed server as mentioned above.

There are companies out there that will design the e-mail for you and yes it will look great, they will then let you cherry pick through their data and select your targets from them and they will carry out the sends and provide you with live tracking reporting...

BUT...the open rates will be poor, I worked for a company doing just that and they were achieving open rates of around 5-10%, and charging £195 each month for it. POOR!!! and thats why I left.

The reason for this is that the company still had no relationship with the recipients and were just bombarding their data with e-mails, not much different to spam really is it.

The company I have used is different, I wont mention there name as I dont want to appear as though I am promoting for them but there set-up is totally different and it works....

They engage with the recipients on their database first and ask them to highlight the areas they are specifically interested in, each e-mail sent to them is then completely relevant to their interests.

When I last spoke to them they had around 1 million members, all key desicion makers from companies in the UK. These members edit their profiles regularly, for example if they are looking for a new supplier for their business they will list it in their profile...

My close friend has been using them for a year now, he runs a wholesalers selling products to the beauty industry. They design his e-mail link it to his site and send it only to members who request information on suppliers to the beauty industry each month....

He gets roughly 80% open rates and pays something like £79 each month.

Would be interested to see if people think that is good but would say that proves if done correctly then E-mail marketing can be very useful indeed.

[Danny@BFC]

I do plan to try marketing to a purchased list and will post the results if this thread is still live - its not top priority at the moment but something I have been considering.

Thanks for the pm lbm - I know who I will be purchasing my list from as I specifically want a list of pregnant females in their 3rd trimester, such a list only has a 3 month life span so I wouldnt risk going elsewhere and getting out of date data.

[local-biz-man]

that list is certainly a niche market, lol, but i would still consider doing the sends through a specialized company, beacuse if it just goes through to spam you are wasting your time and more importantly your money.

Good Luck though.