DING! YOU GOT MAIL! Interested in a new cat collar produced in China? 

These e-mails can be highly frustrating, not only because I am actually allergic to cats, but also because I have never shown any interest in this product, for any reason.. EVER!

Well, this is a perfect example of an e-mail marketing strategy your business should avoid.

Spam is in the eye of whom looks at it

Users can examine your email marketing and decide to send it into the clutter folder based on several criteria; like not knowing your Brand, your business.. or even your product!
Sometimes people may have forgotten they have subscribed to your list in the past or, to their view, the content received is not relevant enough to the reason they subscribed.

You may get lost in the Spam Filters 

Outlook, G-mail and all other services work hard to protect the users from irritating or not useful content in the inbox folder. A relevant and interesting e-mail for the potential client may sometimes not reach the folder due to these filters.  According to Return Path (2016), 79% of permission-based emails get lost in the Spam folders.

Such preventative measures from the e-mailing services have become necessary due to the increasing threats of criminal activities through e-mails. Alazab & Broadhurst (2014) have researched that within 13 million emails identified as spam, nearly 1.5 million contained malicious web links or attachments for fraud and data theft.
It is therefore necessary to learn how to prepare a user friendly e-mail which would reach the customer:

• Find a balance between images and text – Too many images with little text can trigger the filter. Avoid text overlapping images: filters will only scan the image, ignoring the text.
• Use pertinent and consistent formatting – Do not exaggerate with HIGH CASES, cursive, bold, etc.
• Try not to include attachments – make sure all of your content is present in the body of the email and/or include links to redirect to your website or social networks to give higher info or follow the purpose of your marketing.
• Avoid those obscene terms such as sales offers! Crazy deals and free money – not only the user would be irritated when they discover it may not be true, but also the terms will sound suspectful to the spam filters.

MailChimp (2017) has a more in depth guidance and explanation of the digital codes. Check it out if you’re interested!

Remain Pertinent

You can send your marketing through e-mail only if your message is relative to the products/services the user has expressed interest for. This is important because imagine if you are a company which sells kitchen appliances, you would therefore be able to publicise articles as kitchen towels, plates, etc., NOT cars! Make sure the content is clear and avoid everything that can cause confusion on who you are and what you do. Using a valid address is much better than using a noreply for 2 main reasons:

• It shows to who receives the email that the sender is a company with a reputation and a high Brand status, not a robot that sends automated messages.
• It provides the user an address to unsubscribe from the mailing list.

Finding contacts

Do not buy or share the mailing lists. If someone from a separate company calls you for the purpose of selling their contacts, remember that they may have the right to send them their emails, but you do not. The other way around is also applicable and why would you give away the list you worked so hard on gathering?

Legal Issues

Ryan (2014) has summarised in 4 main points how the UK law protects users from spam emails by fining up to $16.000 among other penalties entities who violate the following rules:

Recipients must be able to opt-out at any time and easily and such actions must be processed within 10 working days

• Source of the email must be traceable
• No deceptive titles
• You must include full postal address

Of course different countries have different regulations so make sure you follow the rules by checking out this Lionbridge (2014).

Knowing that your business can definitely benefit from email marketing is an absolute competitive advantage but it is definitely not easy. The guide should help you to keep you far away from the blacklist and spam folder so that you can reach your potential clients with your newest offers and deals!

Until next time!

References

Alazab, M. & Broadhurst, R. (2015). Spam and criminal activity. Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice, 526, 2-17.

Lionbridge (2014). The Guide to Email Marketing Laws and Regulations by Country. Link

Mailchimp (2016). How to avoid spam filters. Link

Return Path (2016). Analysis of Worldwide Inbox Placement Rates. Link

Ryan, D (2014). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. 3rd ed. London: KoganPage. 185.

Once upon a time, you thought of the population you wanted to connect with. So, you came up with a brilliant way to tell them you existed: Instagram. Then, you created such a fantastic profile that your followers became your clients and then they started sharing your content with their friends.
And they all lived happily ever after…

For your fable to have such a happy ending, you should first set yourself specific objectives, such as:

• Learn to distinguish different forms of media.
• Recognize the most common SMM channels and choose your most suitable one.
• Comprehend what makes SMM effective and the company’s consequences.
• Identify the various objectives of SMM and learn to formulate your own.

This blog, supported by academic research, gives an introduction to SMM to help you set (and reach) your objectives when developing a successful Instagram page.

Assess if SMM is for you

Instagram, or social media in general, may not be necessarily beneficial for you. Before beginning, you should ask yourself if it is suitable for your business, and which channels you should use (twitter, snapchat, facebook, linkedin, etc.).

Ask yourself:

• Does your target market use social media?  If not, it would be senseless to waste time and money.
• Would your public profile be appropriate for your target market?  You need to be careful when selecting your interests and publishing too personal content (unless that’s your business!); your credibility and reputation may depend on it.
• Can you keep up with instant communication?  Interaction with potential clients is much quicker now. This gives your brand an increased human perception, but it also means you may slip up easily and quickly.
• Do you have time?  Rome wasn’t built in one day! Keep in mind that developing a social media process is long and intricate.

Types of Media:

If you have the financial and influential possibilities, Belden (2013) suggests you can choose to publish your content through:

• earned media – free ads generated by fans and clients whom respond to content they appreciated
• owned media – all communication generated and controlled by a brand through their own platform
• paid media – costly activities which bring added traffic to owned contents and media

Whichever option you choose, remember that you may always encounter hidden costs. An “addictive” profile requires good text, entertaining multimedia elements, and a solid strategy. Since it doesn’t make sense to have the best profile in the world when nobody knows of its existence, you should begin by resorting to sorts of promotions and ads to reach your desired public, which requires time and money (so make sure you remember it when evaluating your goals!).

Instagram

Instagram is oriented towards the “cool kids” of which smartphones have become a constant and daily use. This group has been identified and grouped with a specific demographic of individuals born in the early 2000s, known as Generation Z (Williams, 2015).
Instagram has an average of 300 million active users each day and the average user uses this platform to show and share the beauty and events of their lives (Wertz, 2017). Most companies utilize this platform to introduce and advertise their products or to generate online and instore sales.

You can use Instragram’s Power Editor (Ottaway, 2016) to create your ads. The tool follows a similar structure to Facebook and Twitter, as it shows up in the follower’s feed with the line: “sponsored content”. If you want to propose a new line of clothing or furniture, etc., you may also want to take into consideration the rotating ad feature which makes more multimedia available without scrolling through the feed.

To create a page, you should first consider whether you’re a business or a location, a brand or product, if you’re a musical artist, actor, or any other public figure. Complete your page with all the necessary information about yourself, activity, and contact information. Choose a profile picture which represents your business and is appropriate for your idea.
For the content, it is extremely important to make it interesting and light hearted (keeping in mind your target market).
Would your followers want to learn more about it? Would they share it with friends?   If you don’t think so, you should work further on it. Among with making your followers laugh, being positive, and sharing quality content, use multimedia to catch attention; also, remember that most of the time playing it safe can be better than making a foolish risk.

The content should follow a consistent style and should be refreshed regularly to keep your followers entertained. Check out Baranovska’s blog (2016), as she gives additional and precice guidelines.

Finally, you must try, try, try!! Nothing comes out perfectly the first time. Keep going at it, and you are sure to achieve positive results.

Be sure to follow next month’s blog post, as I will explain the implementation and analysis fundamentals for SMM.

References

Baranovska, V. (2017). 7 Tips for Using Instagram for Business. Link

Belden, C. (2013). Paid, earned and owned media: Convergence in social media. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 1(3), pp.243-250.

Ottaway, F. (2016). Creating Instagram Ads in Power Editor: Your One-Stop Guide. Link

Wertz, J. (2017). Which Social Media Platforms Are Right For Your Business? Link

Williams, A. (2015). Move Over, Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z. Link