To email market or not
If you are connected to the Internet as most of us are these days – circa 2018 – chances are that you have an email account or multiple email accounts, beginning with the one provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and perhaps one or more free email accounts provided by Google for personal use (GMail) and for business use if you operate a business. For those who do not own or manage a business the decision about how you use your email account is a simple and straightforward one which need not be explained here; but for those who own businesses, big and small, the use of email account(s) creates the need to make a few critical decisions.
First and foremost, when you own a business and have to decide whether or not your email account should be used for, or dedicated to, Email Marketing (EM) and whether this type of marketing is a good fit for your business, your decision-making process can be a difficult one; because although the concept of email marketing is very simple to understand, the process of determining whether or not it is right for your business can be significantly more complicated.
Factors to consider
This is because you have to consider a number of different factors before making your decision. Such factors often include members of your target audience and their tendency (or lack thereof) to use the Internet; whether or not your message can be effectively stated in an email; and whether or not your message is likely to be misinterpreted as spam. These factors and many others are important and devoting serious thought to them can go a long way in helping you determine whether or not email marketing is a good fit for your business.
That having been said, among the most important factors which must be considered when deciding whether or not to , energy and time into email marketing is understanding the extent to which a significant percentage of your target audience will use the Internet regularly. This is important because an email marketing campaign is not worthwhile if members of your target audience are not likely to use the Internet to purchase or research the products or services you offer; and even if they use the Internet for other purposes it may not be worthwhile if they are not likely to become online customers for your products or services.
Message to the audience
On the other hand, if your target audience is comprised of significantly more members who are very likely to use the Internet when making purchases of products and/or services, including those offered by you/your company, and to research these items online then an email marketing campaign may be a very good fit for your business. In this case it is absolutely worthwhile because you will be providing information that the members of your target audience will find useful, information which they may already be looking for elsewhere.
Next you should consider the products and services you offer in an effort to determine whether or not your message can be effectively stated and delivered in an email. This is important because if you offer a product or service which is difficult to explain, the emails you use for marketing are not likely to be understood or well received by members of your email subscriber list. This is critical because you want to be able to convey to potential customers the need that exists in the marketplace for products and services you offer, instead of making them feel more confused.
Refine your subject
Perhaps the most important aspect of email marketing to consider is the possibility that your email messages will be viewed as spam. This is a mistake that you never want your audience to make because emails which are viewed as spam are not likely to be well received by recipients and may not even make it to recipients’ inboxes if their spam filters tag these emails as spam. And on those occasions when your emails do reach the intended recipients, keep in mind that many Internet users have grown accustomed to weeding out spam rather quickly and therefore recipients will likely be quick to delete your messages, without reading them since they’ve mistakenly regarded them as spam.
In order to avoid such a mistake on the part of your recipients it is important to consider the subject of your business, and therefore the emails you send out. In other words, the subject of your emails must be as closely related to the theme of your website and the nature of your business as it can possible be so as to immediately alert your recipients that the content of your message is relevant to them and consist of information which is useful and, perhaps, valuable to them. This exercise is important because certain subjects such as weight loss pills are likely to be viewed as spam more quickly than other subjects…
Diligence begets a good fit?!
Meaning that if you are in the business of marketing products/services that would likely cause your emails to be viewed as spam, an email marketing campaign may not be a good fit for your business, unless you’re willing to create and test a number of specialized promotions to cover certain aspects of your company, brand or selected professional employees that could set your business apart from the negative connotation(s) associated with certain products similar to those which you offer. But creating such promotions entail even more thought, money and time in addition to difficult decisions, so be careful.
