Email Marketing

CHRISH

Does Anybody Do Email Marketing Such As Bulk Mailing To A Specific Zip Code?
AND HOW DO YOU DO IT?

Chris

rbsremodeling

spammmmmmm

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Chris Johnson

Over a year ago I worked for a company that tried to SPAM mail every architect and engineer by joining the AIA, I think they sent out over 800 email introductions....not one response

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Chris

tinner666

Seems that life is hard enough without trying to make enemies of potential customers AND putting a bullseye on your back.

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Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.

Ed the Roofer

I remember reading an article about one year ago about Kayak Pools setting up an e-mail marketing blast about this.

They did not just use their existing data-base for contacting potential customers. Supposedly, it increased their call in rate tremendously.

I think I can find the article that referred to that marketing program.

Ed

KentWhitten

spamming 800 emails in this business, unless you're pretty ingenious, isn't going to get you far. spamming 800,00 for canadian pharmacy, that's a little more forgiving. plus your ISP can and may just cut you off and add you to the blacklist.

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If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~Lao Tzu

Custom Cabinetry - Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Kennebunkport, Yarmouth, Falmouth, Cumberland, Ogunquit, Maine

Salmon Falls Cabinetry

Ed the Roofer

Here is an excerpt from the article about Kayak Pools e-mail marketing program and the results.

Ed

"
So Kayak Pools began experimenting with online advertising and made email marketing a large component. It worked with Neighborhood E-mail, an email marketing firm, to come up with a campaign.
It's easier to show you the creative than describe it, so please take a moment to look at the HTML offer. Neighborhood E-mail chose opt-in rented lists from nearly 100 different list brokers. The lists were segmented by Zip code/neighborhood (suburban Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Indianapolis); home ownership and income level. Kayak Pools sent the offer to 800,000 recipients starting in March. They dropped about 150,000 emails at a time, with six drops occurring every other week.
Results/Analysis:

1. Mike Klein, president of Kayak Pools, says despite the fact industry sales are down overall, this was his best year ever. He notes his company has expanded into new territories, but that isn't enough to explain the surge in sales. He attributes the increase to online (primarily email) marketing. The company says 65 percent of sales this summer are directly attributable to online marketing.
   
2. As Kayak Pools used many different lists, overlap was likely. There was the possibility some consumers could receive up to six copies of the same message. I asked about the risk of spam backlash. Neighborhood E-mail's Neil Berman says it's likely most consumers got the message only once. As the message was sent over a period of months, list churn helped eliminate the risk. Anecdotal evidence says consumers didn't complain about spam. He believes receiving the message more than once would reinforce Kayak Pool's brand and offer.
   
3. The company saw a 7 percent open rate and 4 percent CTR on opened emails. I'm curious how this compares to other rented lists; I believe email marketers are seeing a drop in response rates across all industries, but have no data to back this up. Please let me know if you have data you'd like to share.
   
4. The call-to-action was a phone call. I'd like to delve into this a bit. Kayak Pools prefers consumers call rather than fill out an online form. They believe users may not complete an online form, and contact with a real person who can engage a potential customer is more effective. It's a persuasive argument. One suggestion would be for the company use a separate phone number to track response, not the same one used for all campaigns, online and off-.

If conventional wisdom says email marketing won't work for your company, perhaps you should instead heed Kayak Pools' lesson."

Putty Truck

All of our email accounts have excellent spam guards, so I never see spam.

But maybe everyone doesn't have spam protection?

daArch

I kill spammers, in another life, I am

THE SPAMMINATOR

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Wallcovering Installations by Bill Archibald|paperhanger|Eastern Mass|Greater Boston Area|Dover|Wellesley|Franklin|Sharon|MA

RidgeWalker

Email marketing can cost you big bucks, esp like the company mentioned by Ed. 800k of emails is a pretty steep cost.

There are however other ways to build an email list. Have a news letter about your trade with tip, tricks, suggestions that your site visitors can subscribe to is a great way to keep your name in front of them. Giving members the ability to forward your newsletter to other people they know can help to produce a viral effect also.

The hard part is writing a well thought out newsletter or series of how to's.

jkanclerz

Spam definitely sucks, both for the person receiving it and those companies trying to send legitimate newsletters to their clients.

CHRISH, the best thing for you to do would to begin building an email list using your existing customer base. It will take more time but it will be well worth the extra effort.

Definitely make it Opt-In, preferably a double opt-in method (i.e. they fill out a form on your website, and receive an email where they have to click a confirmation link in that message).

Some email marketing programs for you to consider:

• Constant Contact - its easy to set up and integrate into your website for a low monthly cost of $15. Plus they'll go through the hassle of weeding out bad email addresses, leaving you time to focus on writing GOOD CONTENT and other business issues.
• PHPlist - this is my personal favorite (because its opensource=FREE) but it requires significantly more work to set up and maintain. I also mention this program because it has the ability to segment your subscribers based on any attribute you select. In your case, its possible send a message to people within a specific zip code(s).
  
  
  Hope the above information helps. I would have included the links, but I have not reached 15 posts yet, just Google "Constant Contact" or "PHPlist" and you'll get their websites.

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gofrugal

Thats a NO NO

jacsul

Has anyone ever used expiditeemail.com, I inquired about a list of new home buyers in my area for the last 6 mos. They came up with a # of 3000 addresses, they want $300.00 for a one time mailing and will give me stats on what was returned undelivered, read or marked as junk. Sounds fishy

Jack

SFP

What about emailing past/repeat clients? Any luck with this? We have started keeping a database of past clients email's, but havent sent anything out to them yet. What would be a good email format to send out to past clients that would be less like "spam"?

hvacman

don't email people you do not know...you will get 0 results.