Bombarding Your Customers
The first thing you need to ask yourself is, “Am I sending too many emails?” This is a really important question, because no-body wants to have their inbox cluttered with newsletters and promotions. In fact, you will probably find that people will start putting you in auto scam filters after a while if they see you reappearing too much. Atomic sending or ‘bombarding’ is the most common email marketing mistake; it’s the reason you’ll see a gradual drop in email clicks.
Sending Ads, Not News
The next thing you have to ask yourself is just as important, if not more, than the last point. It may seem basic and rudimentary, but it’s crucial to the success of your campaign.
Do you have anything good to say? If you think that you can just pile together a load of random offers and send the amongst the masses, with a change of success, your very wrong. You need to really consider what you’re writing. Is it valid, interesting and something that people might want to read? Does it look like spam? You need to gain your audiences trust from the very first email that is sent, or you’ll be put into the junk folder forever.
You will need to target specific emails to your demographic. You can do this by studying previous click through rates; putting the emails that have shown previous interest into a single database. Then, only send emails to the addresses that have shown an interest in you before. This is something that will become more accurate as time progresses.
Using a Black-Listed Email Provider
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that if your emails are being flagged as spam straight away, they will automatically go into the recipient’s junk folder. It is also not hard to understand that the click through rates of a junk folder will be significantly less than that of the actual inbox.
Make sure that your email provider is not black listed, and has a perfect reputation. If it is whitelisted, it is a good sign!
If you are still unsure about your email provider, try looking into the company itself through forum reviews and blog entries. If there isn’t anything good being said about them, consider ditching them. To find a ‘golden’ host, scan through the most popular sites and pick the most cost effective solution for you.
Beware: Email providers will promote themselves! You might see some good reviews about your provider that you think are real, but, are in fact very biased. It is also not hard for them to make a website impartial.
Image Blockers
It’s important to have a well-designed email. It shows that you have a professional attitude, and it makes your company seem larger than it actually is. Studies also show that having a colourful, exciting and well-designed email will increase sales and click through rates.
But…are we forgetting about image blockers? When you design your email, or when you buy a design, be sure to consider what it would look like with an image blocker attached to it? An image blocker restricts your email, blocking images and certain Flash texts.
When you design your email, make sure that there is enough simple content on it, so that you can gain the attraction of your market with image blockers attached. This is fundamental, as otherwise your customers won’t even see what you have to offer!
Summary Checklist
If you follow the rules below, with reference to the details in the article above, you should be able to promote your Flash website or product with real success.
- Do not send too many emails to the same recipients. It looks boring and won’t help your campaign.
- Is your content interesting and readable?
- Are your emails relevant to your demographic and audience?
- If you created a free website, is it ready for promotion?
- Are you sure that your email provider is legitimate and hasn’t been black listed?
- Are your emails readable and interesting to users with image blockers attached?
