Email Marketing Q & A (Part 2 )

Q: Why do you think Email has been given a back seat recently as a marketing vehicle...is it because of social media marketing being so prominent?

RH:My take on it is that email, the proper use of it, will be here to stay as long as the internet is here and so that’ll be like, forever. Social media marketing has its merits, though all in good measure. 

It seems like whenever the next new shiniest marketing tool comes online, there’s this buffalo stampede that can be heard for miles, with everyone who has been sold into the idea and concept, touting it like it’s their online saviour. 

Which of course is just plain old hype and I suppose a business owner has to go through the experience to see that social media marketing isn’t as it’s cracked up and promoted to be. 

Yes, there are wonderful uses for it all but tell me a business that’s built its business solely on social media marketing and then you’ll have me as being an eager listener.

And the dirty little secret is that the big guns, you know, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Ebay… they’re using offline direct mail to grow their businesses.

Gasp. Who’d have thought that, right? 

I mean, shouldn’t they be using just social media marketing as they’re purely online businesses? Now you know. Okay, now, social media marketing used in conjunction with email, can be a powerful combination. 

But give me an either/or choice and I’ll pick email as a method of building a deep strong relationship with customers, as well as making regular sales like clockwork, I’ll take email, any day of the week, month or year. 

Now those who spurn email and its inherent uses and power, simply do not know how to use it effectively. 

And so what happens as a consequence? 

They bad mouth the media, based on their erroneous assumptions, based on false information, based on simply not taking the time and investing energy and flop sweat to doing it right. 

And let’s just take a look at this; email is just another format to communicate. 

Nothing more. It’s not the holy-grail. Neither is facebook or twitter or any other social media marketing platform. They’re all communication vehicles, just like the fax, the mobile phone, tv, video, letters in the post. 

And with all of those media platform or tools or vehicles, whatever I’ve just mentioned, if you don’t know how to effectively communicate using whatever media, you’re not doing as well as you thought.

And you can’t blame the media platform because if someone else is being successful at using it then it’s you, me, whoever is the mind behind the use of the communication tool in question; we’re the problem and not the media platform! 

If someone else is successful at it, and we’re not; we’ve screwed it up along the line, somewhere. 

Email Marketing Q & A (Part 1 )

Q: With most inboxes exploding everyday with one communication or another, how can a business stand out from the masses and get their email communications firstly, to stand out amongst the dozens of others that are fighting for attention. And secondly, how can one get their emails opened?

RH: You know, some really truly believe that there’s this special trick or a stealth ninja back door strategy that has their email always in the front of the email opening queue and so has it standing out from all other emails like Rudolph the Reindeer’s red nose. 

There’s no such strategy. 

And frankly, if you try to ‘trick’ the reader into opening an email and there’s no payoff for them in terms of a benefit or a value that the subject line seemed to have implied or promised, then you’ll be thought of as a slick trickster, a con artist trying desperately to win attention and you may have lost that customer or potential customer, along with all their referral and residual value for years to come. 

The authentic way to get your emails to stand out and to get them opened and to get them read and acted on, is to be someone that your customers and prospects like hearing from. 

To be someone they trust and revere, someone they have some kind of emotional affinity with. Someone who is liked, and look, that doesn’t come by accident. That doesn't happen by chance. It’s not something that happens like an instantaneous lottery jackpot win or something that you attract to you and have manifested just because of thinking about it but doing nothing to make it all happen. 

On the other hand, it’s something that does happen when there’s a definite desire and a want from the business owner or entrepreneur to connect, to really and truly deliver important, valuable and interesting communications and conversations to customers and subscribers alike. 

That’s the way to be looked on as a welcomed guest and not someone who is simply classed as an annoying pest because of showing none of the qualities in being a person of value and of being of an interest that people want to hear from and in fact, can’t wait to hear from because of the fresh, inviting and compellingly interesting communications sent on a timely and regular basis. 

And that actually is the way to build up a true personality driven business. And it’s something most businesses should opt doing because there’s a powerful and distinctive market place advantage in being that person or that business a person looks to amongst all others in the same business category or the same industry.

And that's because all other businesses will be looked upon as nothing but commodity based businesses, giving nothing more than an exchange of goods or services for money, and nothing much more. 

There’s much to be said about creating a personality based driven business because that’s where the true value is and believe it or not, people will pay more and stay longer with those kinds of businesses and organisations, than they will a nameless and faceless corporation that has no soul or no spirit or personality about them. 

NOTE: Are you keen to ramp up your  email marketing game? Want more from the written transcript of where the above interview came from? Email me and I'll give it to you. PLUS... I'll give you access to a powerful yet simple report on how to create personality in your  emails.

raja . hireker @ gmail . com