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OK…so how much e-mail marketing is too much?

This is a question most people ask me, and unfortunately there is no one right answer. The biggest problem I see in email marketing campaigns is that people either send too much e-mail (welcome to the SPAM game) or fearing they will be labeled a spammer they don’t send enough e-mail and lose the chance to promote their products or services.

This next bit of advice will assume that you have followed the principles set out in my last 2 blog posts and you have built a list of people who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

But I will give you some rules of thumb that will help you determine that “sweet spot” where you can send offers and promotions.

Rules of Thumb on E-mail Content

If you have product or services to sell, I recommend not sending sales pitches every single e-mail. One thing that annoys most people is constantly getting pitched to.

The #1 rule of e-mail marketing is content. Provide quality content. Even if people delete it, I believe there is a funny magic aura that tells people that someone has been pitching them or that someone is really trying to give good content.

I can’t prove it scientifically, but I do believe it.

My rule of thumb is AT LEAST 3 e-mails of content per 1 offer.

Frequency

Here’s the question I am almost always asked, “How often should I send e-mail.”

Again, the short answer is “It depends.”

What it depends on is who is on your list. You really have to know who is on your list to determine how much email you can send them. By understanding their habits, you not only increase your chance of getting them to convert to sales, but you also will get a better idea on how often you can send them offers.

Let me give you some examples:

Let’s say you have a list of people interested in business opportunities. You also know that they are on A LOT of other lists. So, you know they get a lot of e-mail. For these people, you could probably e-mail them every single day.

The reason is that this type of list probably gets A TON of emails. They hardly read all their e-mails, so you have to keep sending them emails just to get it read. In other words, you might have to send 10 emails before they’ll even open it up.

But if your list is comprised of corporate types, if you send them an e-mail every day, you’ll get a resounding amount of anger directed at you.

Another example would be if your list is international. I have known some people who have lists that include people from the UK. He sends out e-mails maybe once a week. His unsubscribe rate is low, but among people from the UK, it is very high. The way people from Britain deal with e-mail is different than in the U.S. So, you should take that into consideration the e-mail habits of non-Americans if you have a substantial list of international readers.

Here are some general of rules of thumb that should help you determine how frequently to send e-mail:

1. If your list is comprised of mostly corporate types, don’t send more than 1 e-mail a week. These people are very busy, and more than once a week is too much for them. If you want to send e-mail more frequently, then make sure they are signing up for a daily e-mail or something of that nature so they know beforehand that they will get frequent e-mails. But make sure your content is really good if you’re going to try this.

2. For most lists, if e-mail marketing is a big part of what you do, then I suggest sending e-mail every 4-5 days.

With either of these, you can play around. If you are not getting response, then maybe increase the frequency. But if you are getting massive unsubscribes, cut back.

There is no one right answer, but the key to e-mail marketing is paying attention to your list. They will tell you when they want your e-mails or when they don’t want them. It is your job to listen to them and deliver what they want.

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• How to do E-mail Marketing Without Pissing People Off Part 1 (0)

The thing that annoys people the most when you send them e-mail is when you don’t give them any choice but to get your e-mail.

Let me illustrate:

I get e-mails from these annoying article directories that I submitted articles to. They are constantly bombarding me with all these great “offers”.

I am sick and tired of getting these e-mails. I have sent many of the senders e-mails asking to get off their list.

But…I typically get these responses:

1. The e-mail bounces
2. No response
3. An e-mail reminding me “you signed up for our article directory and said we could send you e-mail. So, we are.”

Well, what choices am I left with? I have to block the sender or tag them as spammers, which, technically, they are not.

But nothing can piss a person off more than when they feel like their inbox is being violated by people who insist on having their offers down their throats. So, I feel no guilt or shame about tagging these people as spammers and hope they get blacklisted.

But this doesn’t have to happen when you e-mail market. You see, some people do this type of thing without even knowing it. Some people use a database program and then “mail merge” in Word. This is great for getting out a lot of e-mails, but it has a fatal flaw. And this brings me to the message of the day:

Give your subscribers an easy way to opt out of your list.

There are two ways to make this easy.

1. Provide an unsubscribe link on every e-mail. Since I use a service called Aweber, this is done automatically for me. At the end of every e-mail I send is a message asking people to click a link to unsubscribe. This lets people who do not wish to get e-mail from me an easy way to stop getting them. And actually, this is a good thing for me. If some people think I send them too much e-mail, then they vote with their computers. As a marketer and business owner, we must make sure we have people on our lists that are responsive to our offers. Those that don’t want even the occasional e-mail is not likely to be a good prospect. So, it’s best for everyone if they can easily get off your list.

2. Let them subscribe to your RSS feed. To me this is the best way to empower your list. Without being too technical here, an RSS feed gives your list the ultimate control. They can subscribe and unsubscribe without giving up their contact information. So, you are completely out of the loop. Though RSS feeds are popular now, I do not suggest only having a feed. I recommend giving people both options of subscribing to your feed and e-mail updates.

A surefire way to frustrate people when you send them e-mail is to force them to continue receiving them. By giving people easy ways to opt out, you can prevent that.

Tune in for the last installment when I talk about the e-mail marketing issue most people ask me about: how to determine when you’re sending too much or too little e-mail.

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OK. So, you want to get better at marketing online, and you know e-mail is one of the most effective forms of online marketing. Well, it is.

But you’re worried if you are too aggressive, you’ll piss off the people you are trying to sell to. Or worse yet, you’ll be accused of being a SPAMMER! And that’s the rub, isn’t it? The fact is we get a LOT of e-mail all the time. But some people get so many messages that your messages get lost in the pile.

So, you have a decision to make. Do you e-mail them over and over to make sure they are getting your messages? Or do you e-mail so little that you constantly get lost amidst the daily horoscopes, newsletters, and other information in your prospects and client’s inboxes?

Well…have no fear. In this series you’ll discover how to find a happy medium between these two losing strategies and I’ll give you some tips that are virtually guaranteed not to piss off most people.

Before you start

First things first. Let me go into what I mean about pissing people off. Let’s get one thing straight. You’re bound to piss somebody off. I mean, there are people out there with some incredibly thin skins.

I got an angry e-mail form someone unsubscribing to my list because he said I was e-mailing him too much. Well…he did subscribe to my blog updates, but he said he only wanted to hear from me once a month.

Great for him, but my business would be dead in the water if I only followed up once a month with people (and yours probably would be too).

So, someone is bound not to be satisfied by your efforts to safeguard their inbox.

But don’t fear…most people will appreciate your effort.

Making people happy starts before they even opt in

The first tip you will get is probably the most important. First of all, before you start your e-mail marketing campaigns, you’ll need a service to manage the people that want to opt into your list. You’ll need this because you want a way to automatically follow up with them. As we go deeper into this series, we’ll talk about using autoresponders (automated e-mail messages) for marketing. And you’ll need a reliable service that delivers your e-mail (you’d be surprised how many of these services fail to deliver your e-mail).

I don’t recommend using your personal database software because it is hard to send automated e-mails and you might run into SPAM complaints (more on this later).

The service I recommend is Aweber. I’ve used them for years now, and they’ve been very reliable and offer outstanding customer support. Best of all, they offer a 30-day trial, so you can try before you commit to anything.

Once you have a good system in place, you can start your e-mail marketing campaign.

Tip #1: Give people something of value in exchange for them opting into your list

How many times do you give your name and e-mail address to someone offering you this awesome free report, only to find the report is not worth a pile of horse hockey?

When you ask for someone’s e-mail address, you are asking them for permission to communicate with you later. For that privilege, I’ve always believed you must offer something of value upfront.

For example, offer a valuable free report, a white paper, free video, free audio, or something else that you feel will be valuable.

As for me, I offer updates to free things on my site. Currently, I give away an eBook. Anyone coming to this site can just snag it without giving me anything (this type of method will be covered later in this series). If they want to be notified of future free things, I will let them know by e-mail. But I also give people the chance to get e-mail updates to this blog. So, I think if people feel the content of this blog is valuable, they can opt into my list.

Getting value upfront will make your prospects happier in the beginning and more apt to accept your future e-mails.

* a note on newsletters. Personally, I think there are too many newsletters out there, and “opt in to get my free newsletter” isn’t as effective as it used to be. If you have a newsletter, I recommend having archives on your web site so prospects can determine the value beforehand. That way if they find it valuable they are more inclined to subscribe.

Tip #2: Do a Double opt-in

When you are asking them for a name and e-mail address, do what’s called a double opt in. This means someone must confirm that they do, in fact, want to receive e-mail communication from you.

I believe the double opt in is crucial to keeping down the piss-off factor. The reason is two-fold:

1. By confirming, a person is taking one extra step, therefore showing they are interested in what you have to offer.
2. You prevent people from fraudulently signing up others. This actually does happen. And you don’t want to get spam complaints.

Most 3rd party services require this. I know Aweber does. Having a double opt in puts you in compliance wit the CANN SPAM Act. There are ways around doing a double opt in, but I don’t recommend it. When you do a double opt in, it protects you from people who call you a spammer since they confirmed that they wanted to be on your list.

So, to recap:

• Get a good service for delivering your e-mail (I recommend Aweber)
• When you ask people to opt-into your list, make sure you are giving them something of value in exchange for their e-mail address.
• Make them confirm that they want to be on your list.

In part 2, I’ll give you some tips on how to empower the people on your list, so they will want to stay on your list once they are on.

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• How to Do E-mail Marketing Without Pissing People Off Part 3: How Much E-mail is Too Much? (0)

On a forum the other day, someone asked an interesting question.

“If Menu Foods wanted to hire you to help them build a better corporate image, where would you begin? Or would you decline the project.”

Well, I posted an answer that I thought all of you would find interesting.

But before posting the answer, let me answer the second part first…

…yes, of course I’d take the project. I am a former pet owner, but unless I thought the company was purposely trying to kill my pet (doubt that) or did something unethical, I’d certainly do it.

So, what would I do to rebuild their image? Well, I’d use the power of Web 2.0 and social networking and media to do it.

In short, I would pull a JetBlue.

Get the CEO to create a YouTube/Google video apologizing to pet owners.

Make it heartfelt and honest.

In fact, get the heads of all the brands affected by the recall in the video.

Then let it hit the viral internet stream.

Also, I’d have them build an online forum for pet owners to talk to the
company about what happened to them and how the pet food recall has affected them.

And then hire a team of people to dialogue with pet owners (with the CEO himself joining in the discussion). The power of what they call Web 2.0 is not in the technology but in the power to connect directly with people. I’m sure that Menu Foods is worried about lawsuits, but frankly they’re going to get sued anyway (just Google menu foods and lawsuit and you’ll see it happening all the time).

Creating a forum where pet owners could vent out to them would show pet owners that Menu Foods cares about their pets. And, come on, they do care about their pets because pets are their business.

I say: just let your customers know that you care.

And I do think running full page ads like the Iams & Eukanuba brand is just an OK idea. But it’s just a start

You’ve got the power to actually talk to your customers and you’re just running apology ads? Put a link to my suggested forum in those ads and let your customers talk directly to you.

To close, some people suggested they should offer pet owners something. But I wouldn’t even throw in an offer for anything because it would be insulting.

So, Menu Foods (and associated brands hit by the recall), if you’re listening, don’t hide from your customers. Interact with them–directly.

Success,

Carlon Haas
www.CarlonHaas.com

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For those of you out there who aren’t leveraging social media to get traffic to your blog, may I present to you digg.com.

Digg is a site that allows users to “dig” their favorite stories. It works like this:

1. You see a blog entry or story you like.
2. You present it to digg.
3. Other users see it, and then if other people “dig” it, the story moves up the rankings.

The stories that get the most “digs” end up on the front page.

And what translates into is…traffic. In some cases A LOT of traffic.

I recently heard a blogger give a speech saying that whenever his stuff ends up on the first page of Digg, he has to get his server ready for the extra traffic so his blog doesn’t crash.

It’s that powerful.

It’s not just traffic though. Digg is one great way to let people know what stories you find interesting, humorous, or whatever. And other like-minded people do the same. For example, the top story at the moment on Digg is “5 Ways Best Buy Ruined Geek Squad”. I “dugg” it. Pretty funny stuff but informative nonetheless.

So, if you write interesting stuff and want some traffic to your site, you should get yourself over to Digg.com. It’s free to join.

There are other social media like Digg (I’ll talk about them in later posts), but I just dig the Digg format. Don’t know why…personal preference, I guess.

And, hey, why don’t you press the Digg button at the bottom of this post and digg this post.
I would so “dig” that.

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All right. Here’s a cautionary tale of a man who shall remain nameless (name starts with C and ends with an N, last name Haas) systematically destroyed a blog and in turn made one of the crucial blunders in Web 2.0 marketing.

And that blunder is…

…failing to maintain relationships.

Here is how I systematically destroyed my previous blog.

#1 No RSS feed

How dumb is that? A simple RSS feed on a blog allows people to get notified when you post new items. And the beauty of an RSS feed is that it allows people to subscribe and unsubscribe at will. So, your readers are more empowered.

#2 Posted erratically

When I did post, I posted erratically. So, not only am I not posting, but when I do it’s once a month and then maybe a couple of posts now and again. Nothing says I don’t value you like posting whenever you feel like it or not at all. And then topping that off by being all over the place.

#3 Stopped posting

In all fairness, I was moving on to a different business venture that the blog was not associated with. But nothing ruins readership like not posting.

#4 Promotion? What promotion?

What did I do to promote the blog I never posted to and when I did, it was erratic? Nada. Zip.

So, how I systematically destroyed a blog. Erratic posts to no posts with no promotion and no way to let people know when it was updates (which it never was).

Welcome to my world, partners! That’s the way a blog ends, a blog ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.

Any questions?

Of course, I don’t intend to do that to this blog. The secret to marketing (and maybe the secret to life) is learning from your mistakes and not repeating them.

Tune into my next post as I go into the #1 mistake most people use when using MySpace to market their business (and 9 times out of 10 will get their MySpace accounts deleted!). If fact, it is so crucial, I just might turn it into a teleseminar and post the audio right here on this blog.

Success to you,

Carlon

www.BraveNewMarketing.com

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SPAM. That’s was easy. End of post. Seriously…

…now that that’s out of the way, we can get to all the other mistakes people use when using social media (Web 2.0) to market. But know this: I am telling you these things because I have made these mistakes and in this series, I will humiliate myself for your benefit.

Mistake #1 No Focal Point

Many people go to different social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. The only problem is that those sites are best for driving traffic to your main web site. This is important for 2 reasons:

1. If you try to sell products on these sites, they will shut you down. Recently MySpace rightfully deleted SPAM profiles and the profiles of those who use automated bots to add friends and maker comments. Good for MySpace!

2. Social networking is about building community, not about selling. You may find this an odd statement coming from me since this blog is about using social networking to market yourself (well…you may not know what this blog is about if you are new because I failed to port my more recent posts from my other now-defunct blog and am now having to manually put them back…but I’ll leave that mistake to another post in this series.) But think about this: when you become part of a community and establish yourself as an expert, people will seek you out elsewhere…and isn’t it convenient that there is a link to your web site or blog (I prefer linking to a blog) on your profile! You made it so simple.

By not having a focal point to send people to, you are not maximizing your social networking. In fact, you might end up spreading yourself out so thin that all of your social network marketing is rendered useless.

Tune in for another top mistake and discover how I systematically destroyed my own blog before I realized I had a system for destroying it. It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry. It’s a must see!!!!

To your success,

Carlon Haas

www.carlonhaas.com

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Reporting from the nation’s Capital: I’m Carlon Haas.

Hey all,

I’m in DC for Yanik silver’s Underground Online Seminar III.

This is one cool event. I’ve heard about it for years, but this is the first time I’ve been able to attend. I’m hoping to learn cutting-edge internet marketing and internet business tactics.

I stress business here because a lot of people who have e-mailed me think that I want to teach them “how to make money on the internet”. But that’s not what I do.

I want to teach people how to grow a business online. When I talk about marketing on Web 2.0, it is a way of doing business that stresses the person behind the company rather than the company itself.

People buy form people they like and trust. And the internet has made it much easier to get to know and trust others. Just go to my MySpace page, and you’ll learn all about me. Or look at my bookmarks to see what interests me. Soon, I’ll be uploading videos to YouTube (I know…some of you are e-mailing me about my lack of videos…but in all fairness, I’ve had some technical issues on the videos which I will fix next week…but wait I have a great video of my daughter singing Frosty the Snowman…priceless).

Yes, I could be lying on all those pages. But then again the internet doesn’t let you hide very well. So, I don’t recommend it. But the point is all “internet tactics” should be about growing a business whether it’s all online or an offline business you are promoting online.

Anyway…I’ll post about these issues individually. But take this nugget from today’s post:

You are in business first and online second. By using social media (Web 2.0) to connect with others individually, your chances of marketing that business successfully will go up. And when your business is successful, then and only then will you make money on the internet.

To Your Success,

Carlon Haas

www.carlonhaas.com

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OK…let me start this by saying I do not enjoy rap music. In fact, the closest to rap I ever get is Kid Rock and he turned himself into a country singer!

This is important for a couple of reasons:

#1 You don’t accuse me of liking rap

#2 Even though I don’t like rap, it doesn’t mean I don’t listen to it or look for lessons in what rappers do. I could probably write a book about the business acumen of Jay-Z (a marketing genius if I’ve ever seen one…I’d love just to tag along with him for just one day to learn from him). It just means that you too need to be looking beyond what you like or your industry for marketing and business models.

Now, let’s get on with the show…

#1 Keepin’ it real

If this is not the slogan for a new advertising age, then I don’t know what is. Authenticity, in my opinion, is the MOST important aspect of any marketing or advertising campaign. For gangsta rappers, not “keepin’ it real” can murder an aspiring or top (think Vanilla Ice) rapper.

If you want to be successful in your marketing, you had better keep it real. Keep it honest. And you will be rewarded for it. If you don’t, your customers will desert you until you end up on the Surreal Life for broke businesspeople (it’s coming…I can feel it).

#2 Showing Love for your homies

Whenever I do happen to listen to rap, there is always some guy giving a shout out to his homie. In other words, he’s mentioning his friend’s name. The effect? That rappers fans start looking for that friend’s album.

I recently wrote about Paris Hilton being a walking billboard for other people’s products. Well, rappers do this all the time. And the best part is that it’s authentic. Or at least it appears that way. Fans of rap know better than me that rappers tend to be affiliated with each other through their record companies and that these “shout outs” are great for helping each other.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? By helping others, you help yourself. Rappers get it. And so should you. Make sure to praise your friends, vendors, or whoever else you work with. In the Web 2.0 era, selflessness is profitable.

* I’d like to give a shout out to my buddy Steve Harper. If you haven’t read his book “The Ripple Effect” you’re missing out.

* I’ll give another shout out to Thom Singer. Pick up his book too.

#3 Famous rapper (feat. some guy you’ve never heard of)

OR

Who-the-hell-are-you rapper (feat. Famous rapper)

This is the mack daddy of “rapper marketing”. What’s better for an up-and-coming rapper than to be featured on an album by a guy everyone likes. This works great for rappers. And even conversely. Get a famous rapper to rap on your album and you are nearly guaranteed your first single will sell.

It’s love (and money) by association. And this works in pretty much all business. Get someone famous or well-known to endorse you, and you are well on your way.

Speaking of which, any famous (or not-so-famous) people out there want to give me a shout out? Or how about endorsing my next marketing product (coming out soon). Comment on this blog to let me know (Paris Hilton already did!)

To Your Continued Success,

Carlon Haas

www.carlonhaas.com

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I just saw a video about how air brushed models are in the magazines.

Of course, I already knew that, but many people do not (or at least they try not to think about it too much).

The video shows an average-looking woman who after being made up and “touched up” turns into this gorgeous fashion model on a billboard.

The video definitely appeals to the emotions (like great sales copy should), but to me it says more about the age we are living in.

With the influx of information on a thing called the internet that lets anyone say whatever they want, more and more people are getting bombarded with—for lack of a better word–crap. Truth and authenticity are getting harder and harder to discern.

And I believe that we are entering an age where truth and authenticity are valued higher than ever.

What was the crime in the video? It wasn’t the model. Watch the video and you will see the message “no wonder our perception of beauty is so distorted”.

The crime is in the deception.

If the model had been very pretty and just put on a little make-up, the video would have had no effect because putting on make-up is not considered a deception. But to think that all those women we thought we so pretty actually look like a lot of us out there! That is not something people are going to be tolerating much longer.

I believe that in marketing and advertising the audiences are becoming less and less inclined to suspend their disbelief. They will want more proof. A lot of what is now called Web 2.0 has to do with this. The interactivity you have with someone the more you can trust them.

But in plain marketing terms: just tell the truth and take the time to establish a relationship with your clients.

When I tell my story, I will freely admit that I was a very reluctant entrepreneur who had to fly by the seat of his pants till I discovered how to use direct response marketing (both on and off the web). It’s no secret.

Truth leads to trust.

And people buy from people they trust.

To your continued success,

 

 

Carlon Haas

 

www.carlonhaas.com

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