Advanced Email Marketing

8/11/2019 Advanced Email Marketing

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&ut any thought into. "he feeling such &aid lists giveis in reality the e act o&&osite: lifeless lists 5 as longas you want' but com&letely useless.

or this reason' advanced email mar*eting o&&osesindiscriminate mass mail5outs that use the oldfashion method of 7hitting as many &eo&le as&ossible with the same message.7 % to&5down

a&&roach to advertising that fails to ta*e into accountthe #on2ersational and n.an#ed #/ara#teristi#s thatany communication on the web is made u& of 5es&ecially the social web.

n the contrary' a well5thought out email mar*etingstrategy is based on user se0mentation and theconse>uent profilin0 of messages' grou& by grou&. ,nmore concrete terms: *now your customers 5 bystudying their &urchases' desires' &references 5 so asto tem&t them through more attractive and

com&etitive ad hoc offers. %nd above all' addin0 t/atlittle bit of /.man to.#/ and !armt/ that manymar*eters loose as a result of the more 7distant andcold7 digital medium.%ll it ta*es is a little bit of good will.


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8" Database se0mentation

"o segment your database correctly it s im&erative to

carefully analy=e the characteristics shared by grou&sthat a&&ear to be 7all the same7. f course' you mustcollect such information !it/o.t infrin0in0 on .serspri2a#y .

"he best way to it is to as* your users some basicdata in the re0istration form such as &ostal addressor age' and gather other info through s.r2eys and arigorous post-#ampai0n analysis . f course' don t letany other o&&ortunities to build u& your *nowledgesli& through your fingers: thus' very often #.stomerser2i#e &roves to be a gold mine when it comes torevealing the needs of &eo&le and their tastes.

ow you can decide to s&lit your list into several sub5lists 5 to mail5out different offers. Must as a

sho&*ee&er would recommend the right &roduct forthe right customer according to age' needs' the bitsof *nowledge he s ac>uired over time.%fter all' isn t it satisfying being able to wal* into a&lace and as* for 7the usual7E


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So' chec* out these categories5and5hints to hel&segment your lists.

A#ti2e or non-a#ti2e .Se&arating active users 5 those who fill u& their carts'ma*e &urchases or at least access the website 5 fromthe inactive ones 5 those who have sim&lydisa&&eared for some time 5 is an essential first ste&.,nactive users should be targeted with notifications'differing from loyal users who contribute to your e5commerce activity' with the goal to 7re*indle7 theirinterests 5 &erha&s with some ty&e of truly enticingoffer. "he same a&&roach can also be a&&lied toactive users who don t go through with a &urchase'

or users who abandon their sho&&ing carts. 9?ou llfind a number of suggestions about it' in the&roceeding cha&ters;.

Demo0rap/i#s .,t s a &retty obvious segmentation o&tion' es&eciallyif you sell a varied and wide range of goods. ore am&le' it is ideal for any ty&e of clothing e5commerce activity. %ll it ta*es is a bit of analysis tocreate &romotional cam&aigns according to usersage' and in this case gender.


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.yin0 be/a2ior .Classifying users according to their choices and theirtastes is another clever move. ,f you sell CDs and a

user buys two )adiohead albums' it s definitelyworth sending him and other interested customers a&romotional D(# about that artist s ne t album. r ifyou sell boo*s' and a grou& of users have just boughtseveral fantasy boo*s' let them *now about the

release of Christo&her aolini s new novel.,t s the same mechanism effectively utili=ed by%ma=on' just to name one 5 7if you li*e this' thenyou ll li*e this.7 "his strategy tends to &roducee tremely good results. !owever' it s advisable not togo overboard and to carefully evaluate the offers.

eo&le aren t algorithms' and trying to guess theirs&ecific tastes to base your offers on is a good&ractice' but it s also always a bit ris*y."he researcher (li ariser s&o*e about the filterbubble in terms of the tendency arising from

continuous search engines customi=ation' trying toobtain information tailored towards our beliefs andreinforcing a vision of the world that we alreadybelieve in.

rom this &oint of view' an e cellent way to obtainadditional information and avoid the filter bubble isto &ro&ose a survey or introduce o&tions to be


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selected during the newsletter registration &rocess.or e am&le' what *ind of music or boo*s do you

li*eE 8hat things are you &articularly *een onE %nd

so on. ,n this way' it will be the &eo&le themselveswho define their own &rofiles.

Geo0rap/i#al ran0e .,f you sell &roducts that are associated with ageogra&hical area' or events that occur within as&ecific area e.g. concert tic*ets' segmenting basedon geogra&hic location is a winning solution.

*.ality and fidelity .% careful analysis of your customer management

software will >uic*ly come u& with the bestcustomers. %nd as everyone *nows' whoever has&urchased a lot always a&&reciates a small gift or ane clusive &romotional offer...!owever' the >uality of a customer is not onlymeasured in terms of how much they s&end.)ewarding customer loyalty is crucial' even if theyma*e small &urchases.%nother segment that could easily be &ic*ed out andrewarded is the most loyal users over time. "his isthe &erfect way to demonstrate that they re

im&ortant to you.


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e for!ard t/inkin0Bot every sub5categori=ation of the database is

suitable for every ty&e of business. ,n short' you have

to &atiently &lay around with your own... %ndremembering that you re li*ely to ma*e somemista*es along the way. "he art of segmentation canbe done in many different ways' and you yourselvescan just as easily come u& with other new ones.

"hin* beyond the standard &atterns and beingfle ible is one of the fundamental rules necessary tostructure truly effective cam&aigns. "here is no suchthing as 7one segmentation fits all7 or a ty&e ofuniversal targeting. "he only way forward is to&roceed by trial and error' testing each small ste&.,n short' it is &ossible 9and worthwhile; to im&rovetogether with your customers' listening with &atienceand humility to their needs and acting on it. "hey llreally a&&reciate it.


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9" Email appendin07 a #ontro2ersial pra#ti#e

(mail a&&ending is the one5to5one &rocess of

mat#/in0 #.stomer information !it/ t/eir emailaddress . $et s assume you ve already got a list ofnames of &eo&le you *now' but not their emailaddresses. %&&ending is all about finding the missing&ieces and inserting them into your database.

,t is not entirely clear whether this is considered &artof the best &ractices of email mar*eting or not. Somee &erts' li*e (ric Groves discourage it. thers' li*eSimm Men*ins' thin* just the o&&osite 5 &rovided youfollow a fe! pre#a.tions .

irstly' email a&&ending should never be carried outusing random lists of names or lists collected willy5nilly. Tery often' the &eo&le whose emails we ve gotsim&ly don t want us to have them. (mbar*ing on

such a strategy goes against the f.ndamental opt-inr.le 5 only mail5out your newsletter to whoever sclearly given their consent.

"hat said' there are ad hoc services that offer ways of

a&&ending by means of a database. !ughes andSweeters recommend in Successful Email Marketing


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Strategies ' to use resh %ddress. %nother service isi%&&end. "hese &latforms first send an invitation toan email address they want to do the a&&ending

with. ,f the invitation is acce&ted' you receive thecorres&onding account.

"his does not mean that the account should beinserted immediately into the address boo*. ,t s

necessary to re&eat the &rocedure to ens.re yo. 0ett/e opt-in permission .

,n any case' from where we stand' email a&&endinga&&ears to be >uite an aggressive &ractice that lac*stransparen#y . "here are several other ways to bolsteryour database. 8hy ta*e ris*sE ,t s better to rely onsecure and &roven strategies.


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=" Remarketin07 abandoned s/oppin0 #arts

)emar*eting is a 7second stimulus 7 given to a user

who &reviously showed some interest in a &roduct'but failed to take any a#tion or p.r#/ase anyt/in0 .

,t s ty&ical of many e5commerce sho&&ers to fill theircart with items but e it before &urchasing anything."he advantage of sho&&ing online' after all' is the factthat &eo&le are able to go cra=y filling u& their virtualcart but then &ut their &urchase off for a later date.

"he reasons for such behavior vary. #aybe thesho&&er doesn t have his credit card handy' or needs

to dash off or more sim&ly' &refers to wait and thususes the cart to save the wish list items. %nd it ishighly li*ely that users !ant to !indo! s/op aro.ndand look for t/e best deals .

%t the end of the day' it leads to guaranteed losses inrevenues. "his &henomenon is far more commonthan &erha&s one might imagine.So what can be done about itE(asy: send off a profiled email to awa*en this7slee&ing cart7.


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"he idea is sim&le. Send an automated follow5u&email every time users abandon their &urchase' toremind them of what they re missing out on. Bsing

several im&ortant ti&s' li*e the good old onesrecommended by Sherry Chiger on Chief#ar*eter :

Ne2er send t/e messa0e too soonJ b.t don4t lea2e ittoo late eit/er . % good rule of thumb is between 0and /2 hours after the sho&&ing cart was abandoned.Sending it too early may give users that un&leasant

big brother feeling' but leaving it for more thanthree days runs the ris* the user may forget aboutyou or go elsewhere.

T/e !innin0 strate0y is to .se a #.stomer ser2i#esorientated approa#/ . "he less commercial your emailcomes across the better. ,nstead of a 7!ey' why didn tyou finali=e your &urchaseE7' offer assistance with a78ere there any &roblems at the chec*outE Can we

give you a hand to com&lete the &rocessE7

Insert a link to t/e abandoned s/oppin0 #art . "his isim&ortant' as it enable sho&&ers to immediately gettheir hands on the items they left behind. ?ou canalso insert images of other similar &roducts toencourage cross5selling.
http://www.chiefmarketer.com/http://www.chiefmarketer.com/


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Create a sense of .r0en#y during the &urchasing&hase but don t go overboard' of course@ ,t isenough to state that their bas*et will be deleted

within a few days. ur suggestion is that &erha&s thisis too much and it may ma*e customers feel they arebeing &ressured and their sense of freedomthreatened which is essential in e5commerce forone to feel free to come and go as she &leases.

,t s not vital to in#l.de in#enti2es or dis#o.nts ' inreturn for ma*ing a &urchase. ut if you do' becareful not to give the im&ression that it is better toabandon ones cart in order to be tem&ted with adiscount. Customers will see through this little tric*@

*.antity or 1.ality E Sure you can send more thanone follow5u& email' but ma*e sure never to harassusers unnecessarily.

8e are also com&elled to mention another &ointabout sending emails of this nature. Carefullysegment the users in >uestion and fo#.s on t/oses/oppers !/ose abandoned #arts /a2e a #ertaindollar 2al.e : these &eo&le are more li*ely to bebetter targets for a follow5u& o&eration 5 instead ofsomeone who only selected one or two &roducts.


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:" )o! to find o.t t/e ina#ti2e .sers

6ee&ing your lists healthy does not just mean

deleting incorrect or du&licate addresses' but moreim&ortantly re-a!aken .sers who haven t carried outany actions on your newsletter for some time 5haven t clic*ed the call to action' or even bothered too&en the email.

ut more &recisely' what do we mean by ina#ti2e.sers E 8hen and in what way can we consider oneof our subscribers 7dormant7 and therefore worthyof some ty&e of direct action to re*indle theirinterestE

"he first &oint one must consider is that the inactivityrate de&ends largely on your email deli2ery strate0y .#eaning' the number and fre>uency of newslettersmailed5out to the selected segment or the entire

database.

"he second im&ortant consideration is that there aredifferent de0rees of ina#ti2ity all the nuancesre>uiring different solutions that must be decided

case by case.


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"herefore' it s im&ossible to come u& with universalguidelines. "he best solution is to follow a ty&icalcase and develo& general considerations that can be

ada&ted 5 !it/ a pin#/ of #ommon sense 5 to almostevery situation.

8e ll ta*e for e am&le a fairly standard mail5outstrategy: two D(#s &er wee*. 8hat are the &ossible

inactivity scenariosE $et s loo* at a few of them:

5" No #li#ks after 9> days .,t is very im&ortant to distinguish between a clic*5through and just o&ening an email. ,f your emailscontinue to be o&ened but there are no clic*s on thecall to action' it &robably means the user istem&orarily not interested in the offer. ,n otherwords' you still have to monitor this &ortion of users'but there s no need to &anic.

8" No emails opened after 9> days .,f the number of users who fail to o&en thenewsletter is very high' then the cause is &robablyendemic and ste&s need to be ta*en to review the>uality of your subject lines and offers. ,f thesegment is limited' the best solution is to tailor ma*ean offer to 7wa*e them u&7.


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9" No a#ti2ity after t!o mont/s .,f there isn t any *ind of reaction after all theseemails' then the user can be &retty much considered

inactive. (ven in this case' the best solution is thededicated offer' &ersonali=ing the a&&roach as muchas &ossible. ,f the inactive numbers are relativelysmall' this is easy enough to do. "o get to the root ofthe &roblem rather than merely treating its

sym&toms' it is necessary to loo* into the causes ofthis behavior and accordingly develo& suitablestrategies.

=" No a#ti2ity after si3 mont/s a year .!ere users are very dee& slee&ers' and there are anumber of different reasons: a com&lete lac* ofinterest in our services to an un5notified change ofemail address 5 few give it much thought@ % >uic* call5 if you have the customer s number 5 or sending astrictly &ersonal email are the best ways to solve the

&roblem. %nd if the user really wants to o&t5out' ouradvice is always the same: ma*e the &rocedure asra&id as &ossible. ,f you can avoid sending anotheruseless message' it is better for you and the &erson.


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f course' these are just some &ossible scenariosused as a guideline' but you will find that yourreactivation reci&es may vary.

8hat s im&ortant to remember is that the analysis ofyour databases should be carried out as a##.ratelyas possible .

or e am&le' a loyal .ser !it/ a #ertain p.r#/asin0

tra#k re#ord should certainly be considered in adifferent way from a recently registered user: if thefirst has been inactive for some time' it is worth&ersonally writing and trying to find out whether thealready virtuous relationshi& has bro*en down 5 andif so' how to go about fi ing it.

,n short' the art of managing customer relationshi&sand finding the best solution for each individualsegment is very delicate and re>uires a lot of effort 5and also many failed attem&ts.

,f the ideal of 7an ad5hoc email for each user7 is justan ideal' then this shouldn t sto& us from *ee&ing inmind the need to profile in t/e best possible !ayboth our active and 7reactive7 cam&aigns.


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" ,t/er remarketin0 ideas

,n addition to the ad hoc emails aimed at those

abandoned carts and re5*indling inactive usersinterests' there are other ways to give users a secondchance when it comes to emailing. !ere are a fewti&s to get your new remar*eting strategies started.

iden t/e s#ope of yo.r follo!-.ps so as to include&eo&le who have abandoned the registration form. ,tcould be a good idea to &re&are a tailor mademessage for those users that only filled in half of it 5es&ecially for forms that as* for a lot of information.

Create #ross-sellin0 and .p-sellin0 opport.nities .)emar*eting isn t only about recovering &otentialclients 5 it also hel&s to further boost customer trust.#ail5out tailor made &romotions to &ro&osealternative or additional &urchases. ot only that'

you can segment your remar*eting de&ending on thetarget audience.

Consider inte0ratin0 !it/ ot/er tools . %s &art of acom&lete mi ' you can also thin* of integrating

emails with social su&&ort tools' or a &hone call 5 forelderly users it might be a good idea.


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%nd on a final note' al!ays pay spe#ial attention topri2a#y and sendin0 o.t too m.#/ information .)emar*eting emailing is a very &owerful tool' but

bombarding users with too many messages or worsesending them to &eo&le that have already o&ted5out'means ruining ones chances with ones own handywor*.


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" )o! to respond to an email

f the many vices lin*ed with the way we do

business and our wor* culture' one of the worst is tobe indifferent when it comes to emailcommunications. "he li*es of 7, ll re&ly when , ve gottime and if , feel li*e it7 or worse 7not evenbothering7.

"he ty&ical e cuse being 7, ve got too much on my&late to dedicate time to this too.7 Ans!erin0 emailstakes time ' as everyone *nows. ut it s afundamental as&ect of your &rofession. ,f you vemade the choice to be contactable 5 which is crucialin today s business world 5 then you ve got to givesome ty&e of feedbac* to whoever as*s for it.

"his not only affects the way we communicate withindividuals' but also mana0in0 mass email

responses . %s the basics say' if you have mailed5out anewsletter from an address that you can re&ly to 9asyou should;' then it is yo.r responsibility to ans!ere2ery messa0e yo. 0et ."his is of course fundamental in the case of urgent

matters 5 such as as*ing to be removed from yourdatabase' or the notification of a serious &roblem.


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ut also when it comes down to sim&le forms ofcriticism' com&liments or general in>uiries' at least asingle line res&onse is always necessary. ,t also hel&s

reinforce your brand re&utation' and demonstratesthat you have a high standard of business ethics:benefiting your email marketer professionalrep.tation .

"hat said: /o! to respond to an emailO "he >uestionseems a bit silly' but judging by the large number ofmessages left unanswered' or res&onses that don tma*e any sense' it seems to warrant a re5ta*e of thesituation. !ere are five short sim&le ti&s.

e 1.i#k abo.t it ."his basic rule is fairly infle ible: always res&ondwithin 2 5 0h. f course it also de&ends on the ty&eof email. ,f you re res&onsible for customer serviceand it comes from a very angry user' it s necessary to

re&ly immediately. ,f it s a general in>uiry' it could be&ut off for a while 5 but don t forget about it@ %nim&ortant s*ill to learn' in order to best manageemails' is the ability to set the right &riorities.!owever' don t forget that the longer you wait' themore ris* you run of creating a nagging feeling ofneglect. % ra&id res&onse is always a&&reciated.


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e #lear and informati2e ."he worst thing that can ha&&en to someone who issee*ing some information is to get an email bac* that

fails to offer any res&onse' or resolves the wrong&roblem. Double chec* the message you receive soas to clearly understand what they re as*ing' ta*e amoment to thin* it over and then get straight to the&oint. ,f you are as*ed about a &articular &oint' your

res&onse should be focused on answering it andsto&. f course' try to avoid s*im&ing on any relevantdetails' if you have got the time. ut never get sidetrac*ed. %nd this brings us to our ne t &oint:

Keep it briefJ b.t not o2erly so .

$ong5winded res&onses should always be avoided:it s a waste of your &recious time not to mention theusers ' and it undermines the value of the res&onsei.e. being informative. revity 5 the ca&acity to clearlye &ress oneself in the shortest &ossible s&ace 5 isn t

easy any way you try it' and so it also re>uires a bit of&ractice when it comes to emailing. ut' even moreim&ortantly' don t get wor*ed u& over the 7a fewlines7 issue. ,f a &roblem re>uires a bit more s&ace toclear the hurdle' it s totally fine 9&rovided you solveit' of course;.


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,ffer ot/er possibilities .% good &ractice' whenever &ossible' is to includeother ways to get in contact: &hone number' a social

networ* account etc. f course' ma*e sure youres&ond to these channels@

e #o.rteo.s and pre#ise .,t doesn t matter who gets in touch with you' unless

they immediately come across as being rude' theydeserve your utmost courtesy and attention. "hisalso includes the form of your res&onse 5 so *ee& ashar& eye on grammar and synta .

%nd above all' make s.re yo. al!ays reply to yo.rmail . "hin*ing that email is only a one5way tool tosend a newsletter and that &eo&le will sim&ly read itor throw it away' is a serious mista*e. (very timeusers send you a message' they are sharinginformation with you 5 regardless of what it might be.

Don t let that valuable &iece of information sli&through your fingers. ,t might hel& you bettersegment your future offers.


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" T/e perfe#t #.stomer ser2i#e

,t s highly useful to add to this collection of email

mar*eting techni>ues some advice on how to offere cellent #.stomer ser2i#e .

Customer service is one of several factors that &laythe most critical role in the entire online buying&rocess. 8e can im&lement highly elaboratemar*eting strategies' but without having switched on&eo&le able to &rovide the right su&&ort in case of&roblems' all that hard wor* goes out the window.

,t s im&ortant to remember this de&artment is

directly res&onsible for dealing with criticisms andresolving &roblems. Customer service is often at/ankless task ' re>uiring a lot of hard wor*' but it sessential for every com&any: its >uality issynonymous with the value of one s brand 5 fairness'trans&arency' o&enness' ability to manage issues.

So' here are si ti&s to ma*e this service even moreeffective and guarantee that your email cam&aigndoesn t get lost in the void of &ost salesmismanagement 5 which could s&oil a customer s

entire e &erience.


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A2ailability .,t may sound corny' but it is often the starting &ointthat far too many overloo*: the aim of customer

service is to su&&ort the customer' so when thecustomer needs it' it must be there. o ifs or buts@ ,tmust be available' at the time and method indicated.

verly long waiting times to get through to someoneor even worse numbers that endlessly ring into the

abyss 5 as well as emails that never get answered 5 isthe worst &ossible calling card.

%atien#e and kindnessJ b.t ne2er ser2ility .%nyone who s ever wor*ed in customer service*nows how difficult it is to *ee& a cool head'

es&ecially during &articularly busy &eriods such as big&romotions' Christmas sho&&ing etc. rom this &ointof view' mediated communication ma*es things evenmore com&licated' but you can 5 and should 5 smileeven by tele&hone' email and social networ*s.

atience and *indness are the best wea&ons foranyone dealing with an angry or disa&&ointedcustomer.

ut beware: these >ualities should never sli& intoservility or the desire to &lease customers at anycost. ,t is both counter&roductive' since too many&eo&le will &lay on your *indness 5 without hesitation5 demanding' for e am&le 7Give me another discount


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or , ll s&ea* badly of your brand7' as well as sim&lybeing unfair from a human &oint of view. Sometimesit s not easy' but it s a &oint in which one must stand

firm on' so as not to create bad &recedents. 78e arenot in the service' but we offer a service7 is themotto that every customer care manager shouldre&eat 5 and be &assed on to every subordinate inthe team.

*.i#kJ #on#ise and effi#ient ans!ers e2ery time .8hen &eo&le turn to customer service it s becausethey ve got a &roblem. "he first thing to do is to listencarefully and accurately ascertain what is their&roblem: then solve it without getting lost in endless

chatter. ,f the matter re>uires more time thane &ected' immediately say so and say that you ll doeverything in your &ower to resolve it as >uic*ly as&ossible. 8hen it comes to communicating by email'the suggestions you have just read on how to

res&ond to an email' also a&&ly here. Concisenessand s&eed are always welcome' but being effective ismuch more im&ortant: leaving customers withoutany way of resolving their &roblems or coming u&with only half ba*ed solutions is sim&lyunacce&table.


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/en yo. make a mistakeJ apolo0i@eB% golden rule to stic* to: if there s a glitch of any *indand the system is to blame' the first thing to do is

admit it and calmly a&ologi=e. "rying to &ush theblame onto the customer or conceal it with somechea& tric*s is the worst strategy &ossible. !onestyalways &ays off' even in the worst case scenario: nomatter how angry the &erson you re dealing with is'

starting off with an a&ology will immediately cool herdown and hel& you resolve the &roblem in a calmerand more &roductive way.

A#tin0 instead of rea#tin0 .8hile the mar*eting &eo&le tal* about data mining

and analy=ing the number of li*es on aceboo*'those wor*ing in customer service interact directlywith customers: hel&ing those who ve made&urchases or who are truly interested in ma*ingthem. "hus' customer su&&ort is a goldmine for

anyone who s got the &atience to listen: not onlydoes it allow you to get concrete information on thestatus and >uality of customer satisfaction' but youcan also antici&ate &ossible &roblems and come u&with the best strategies. ,nstead of sim&ly reacting toissues' it s &ossible to ta*e actions to &revent them 5or to ma*e the &urchasing &rocess even sim&ler.


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M.lti-#/annel isn4t 6.st a !ord .inally' one last observation in terms of the evolving

relationshi& between clients and customer service in

light of the changes in the ty&es of media. % multi5channeled a&&roach and the ability to interact inmore than one5way with com&anies is common&lace:now it s normal to as* for information or clarificationvia a tweet or a aceboo* comment instead of a

&hone call.?et' a lot of com&anies fail to even res&ond to &eo&leas*ing >uestions directly on their social &age. Clearly'there is still much wor* to be done' and &erha&s theidea &ersists that 7brand &ages7 on social &latformsare used only as a &assive window dis&lay 5 this wayof thin*ing is a big mista*e.8ithout getting too bogged down' the main issueremains the same: if you o&en u& any ty&e ofchannel of conversation' you ve got to *ee& itmonitored. ,f you haven t got the resources to do it

well' then maybe it s best not to bother. eing onsocial networ*s 7just because you should be there7 isnonsense' even more so when thin*ing about it froma customer care &ers&ective.


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9

DELIVERA ILIT+ AND S%AM


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5" Impro2e yo.r I% Rep.tation

An email t/at 0ets sent is not ne#essarily an email

t/at is deli2ered . Getting this message across tothose who deal with newsletters and the world thatrevolves around them is &erha&s one of the hardestthings to do. #any &eo&le 9alas' also manymar*eters; truly believe that clic*ing 7Send7 is

enough to troublelessly dro& the message in thereci&ient s inbo .

ut that s not the case. ,n fact' deli2erability 5 theability of a message to reach the reci&ient s inbo 5 isone of the most critical issues for every mass mail5

out. %n email can in fact always run into reci&ientsspam filters ' while being &erfectly legal andauthori=ed.

Deliverability de&ends on many factors: a subject linethat doesn t contain s&am5 ris*y words' a well5made!"#$ structure' images that aren t too bul*y' and soon.

rom a &urely technical &oint of view' however' themost im&ortant factor is t/e rep.tation of t/e I% thatsends the messages.

"he ,nternet rotocol 9, ; 5 is sim&ly a number thatidentifies a device connected to the 8eb. "here are


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several tools available to hel& you find out what your, number is' for e am&le Get, ."he best thing to do in order to verify the , of an

email 5 whether received or sent 5 is to loo* at theso.r#e #ode . ,f you want to chec* your own ,address' just send an email to yourself. "he addresswill a&&ear in the first lines of the header. %s in thise am&le' highlighted in bold:

Return-Path: Delivered-To: [email protected]: (qmail 2 !2 invo"ed from net#or"$% &'eb 2)*+ **:*):,+ -))))Received: b simscan *.+.) id: 2 !2+ id:2 !2, t: &.*+,*sscanners: none

Received: from tb//bihbhd//.turbo-smt .net( 199.187.173.99 $

,n a few words' the re&utation of an , is its validity interms of sent emails' assigned s&am notifications'messages sent to none istent addresses' and so on.,f an , isn t &ro&erly used' its re&utation is adverselyaffected and will be subject to restrictions andcontrols by s&am filters' and eventually winds u& ona blac*list 5 the list of &rotocols that are flagged asunreliable. %nd your emails will get bloc*ed.

,t s therefore very im&ortant to monitor this value:for e am&le' controlling it via the tools offered by
http://www.getip.com/http://www.getip.com/


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SenderScore or Sender ase . %nd once the re&utationof an , has been verified' there are also ways toim&rove it:

Al!ays reply to emails askin0 for feedba#k . ,naddition to being a general good &ractice' it showsthat behind the sent messages there is a &erson andnot a s&am factory.

Make s.re yo.4re not on any bla#klist 9and if so as*to be removed;. "here are many blac*lists: the majorones can be found on S&am!aus and Dnsbl. % good&ractice is' however' to do a cross test of one s own, address' e.g. with the hel& from # "ool o .

'se a #ertified SMT% ser2er . S#" is the &rotocolthat controls the mailing5out of the emails: the7&ostman7 res&onsible for trans&orting messagesacross the web. Common connections' however' use

S#" servers that are constantly changing' and thatcan also use , s that have &oor re&utations. "he&roviders filters of course negatively react to this. %way to avoid this &roblem is to get a &rofessionalS#" service that is able to ma imi=e thedeliverability. 8e highly recommend our &artnerturboS#" .
https://www.senderscore.org/http://www.senderbase.org/http://www.spamhaus.org/http://www.dnsbl.info/http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspxhttp://www.serversmtp.com/https://www.senderscore.org/http://www.senderbase.org/http://www.spamhaus.org/http://www.dnsbl.info/http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspxhttp://www.serversmtp.com/


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Al!ays #arry o.t a spam #/e#k .Due to the aggressiveness of email filters 5 havingsignificantly reduced s&am in the last two years 5

even those newsletters that are fully authori=ed andstructured according to all of the sector s best&ractices often get bloc*ed."herefore' it is good &ractice to carry out tests inorder to &in &oint &ossible &roblems associated with

the wording of the te t' image >uality' and any otherfactors that might affect the deliverability of yournewsletter.% good mass email mar*eting service or softwareshould have an inbuilt s&am chec*er' but it s also&ossible to turn to e ternal a&&lications."his series of accurate controls enables you tominimi=e the ris* of falling victim to filters andcorrect any errors before the final mail5out.


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8" Email a.t/enti#ation

% strange email notification arrives from the ost

ffice or a ban* 5 in which you mightn t even have aban* account: obviously it s s&am' but how dos&ammers manage to &retend to be someone else sowellE

n one hand' it4s 2ery easy to #reate a false senderidentity 5 just enter a com&any name. (ven if theemail address from which you are mailing5out from iscom&letely different: in fact' many clients and webservices dis&lay the name and not the email address.

n the other hand' there is still a /i0/ de0ree ofillitera#y when it comes to using email 9andsometimes the internet in general' alas;: far toomany &eo&le are easily fooled' ma*ing even rathersim&le tric*s highly &rofitable.

"o co&e with such &roblems 5 and &revent yournewsletter from being mista*en for s&am by su&er5sce&tical users 5 it s worth ta*ing advantage of emaila.t/enti#ation . "hat is' the &rocess that accurately

chec*s and guarantees the origin of your messageand the address matches the sender s name.


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"here are several ways to get authentication: themain ones are Domain Keys' DKIM' S%& andSenderID . "he first two re>uire a code that is

embedded in the email itself' while Sender,D and Su&load a file to your server so that the reci&ientemail address ma*es a crosschec*.

(ven though not every &rovider enables this' there

isn t a better method' for e am&le ?ahoo #ail andGmail do not su&&ort Sender,D. ,n order to avoid any&roblems' the best thing to do is to rely on an emailmar*eting service that performs a.t/enti#ationa##ordin0 to all t/ese standards .

%gain' relying on a &rofessional S#" server li*eturboS#" is an e cellent way to solve this issueonce for all' since it &rovides a f.ll emaila.t/enti#ation by all standards s*yroc*eting yourdelivery rate.
http://www.serversmtp.com/http://www.serversmtp.com/


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9" &ryin0 t/e ba#on7 spam 8">

,t s called bacon' but in reality it s s&am. 8ell almost:

some call it spam 8"> ' even if it has nothing to dowith the factories that &roduce unsolicited jun* mail.

"o be &recise' ba#on 5 or bacn 5 are all thenewsletters you willingly subscribe to 9with o&t5in ordouble o&t5in;' but arrive in huge >uantities and withlittle or no content value' sometimes reaching thecritical &oint of over5whelming your inbo . asically'it all boils down to the good old5fashioned >uestionabout relevance that many mar*eters tend to ignore'and in whose clutches one ends u& far too easily.

!ow many emails of little or no value will wecontinue to getE Definitely a certain number. !owmany communications truly target their audienceand are worthy of one s attention' and are not just

email blastsE ,nevitably too few."he solutions are the classic ones: users should bebrave and reduce the number of their subscri&tions'whilst mar*eters should aim at in#reasin0se0mentation and rele2an#e . !owever' the moreinteresting >uestion is why these solutions are rarelyado&ted.


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,t a&&ears that users fail to unsubscribe for severalreasons: the inability to find the a&&ro&riate lin*' orthe o&t5out &rocedures are too long winded and

com&le ' or it s often easier to &ut it off for a laterdate and just delete the mail... f course' all thesee cuses ma*es it much sim&ler for the creators ofbacon: the ridi#.lo.sly lo! #ost of sending massemails' lac* of delisting and the tem&tation to get

immediate conversions encourage them to continuewith these su&erficial and non5target s&ecificstrategies.

So it shouldn t be sur&rising that a /i0/ per#enta0eof t/e spam #omplaints is triggered by the veryD(#s and newsletters themselves mailed5out bymar*eters. ure and sim&le bacon.

#oreover' des&ite the various com&laints related toemail overload' the number of newsletters mailed5

out continues to remain very high. %nd this is goodnews because basically someone enjoys them.%lmost a third of all the messages we receive aremade u& by newsletters' and the ) , from emailmar*eting is still the best in the digital sector 5 almosttwice as much as search' amongst others. ,t is &rettynatural that com&anies dot on it.


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So' how does one avoid winding u& in the bacon andremain honest and relevantE"he answer is sim&le: simplify t/e pro#ed.re for opt-

o.t . $et s see how.


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=" Streamlinin0 t/e opt-o.t pro#ess

%s we have seen' the e cess number of messages

drives users to get rid of all the emails they deemuseless. Bnfortunately' a &o&ular a&&roach is todiscard the unwanted mail in the jun* bo 5 labelingit as s&am so as 7not to have to thin* of it anyfurther7: the spam #omplaint met/od has become ashortcut for getting rid of overly &ushy or no longerinteresting offers.

% staggering number of users still do e actly that'thereby fueling the number of 7false &ositives7 i.e.messages actually re>uested but get branded as

s&am. "echnically s&ea*ing' this adversely effects themail server s re&utation' and as a result !orsensdeli2erability .

"his behavior is due mainly to certain bad &racticescarried out by mar*eters who in a des&erate attem&tto hold on to their customers 5 or sim&ly due toignorance 5 ma*e the o&t5out &rocess overly com&leor sometimes even im&ossible.

(very email should instead have a clear disclaimer

that &ermits users to opt-o.t in 6.st one #li#k : we arenot im&licitly inviting users to leave' instead ma*ing


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the relationshi& with them a whole lot clearer andmore trans&arent. "hereby' im&roving the virtuouscircle of communications.

%lthough it may seem a bit ris*y' don t be afraid toma*e the o&t5out &rocess as >uic* and sim&le as&ossible. T/e fa#t t/at one of yo.r .sers !ants toopt-o.t is f.lly nat.ral and is a normal &art of anylist life cycle 9as we shall see in the ne t cha&ter;.,f you ve got worthy content value' your users willremain loyal. %nd if someone wants to leave all thesame' it s better to say goodbye in a 7correct7 wayrather than receiving unnecessary s&am re&orts 5which will just cause a whole load of other &roblems.

"hat said' the general issue surrounding deliverabilityremains urgent. "he very &oint is that t/ea00ressi2eness of spam filters very often bloc* evenfully legitimate newsletters. ,n addition to this' many

mar*eters continue to believe in 7indiscriminatemass mail5outs7 that lac* any segmentation' areoverly careless and sent far too fre>uently.


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:" Keep in mind t/e #/.rn rate

8hat ha&&ens if a customer really o&ts5out from

your databaseE o &roblem.

"he #/.rn rate 5 the &ercentage of users who removethemselves from the database 5 is a constantlychanging rate' for every unsubscribing there will

always be y new registrations. f course' if thenumber of o&t5outs increases 2erti#ally ands.ddenly ' it s necessary to figure out what s going onand remedy the situation.

ut &ay attention: behind those o&t5outs there maybe a reason that few mar*eters consider. erha&susers are still interested in our offers' b.t not 2iaemail marketin0 . or e am&le' a user may not wishto clutter u& the inbo . ,n other words' you must finda way to tem&t them by using other channels.

9"his of course begins with an im&licit assum&tion:your business must have a proper marketin0 mi3 'and not rely only on one single form ofcommunication;.

"he best and less intrusive way to 7change channel7is to include a suggestion at the end of the o&t5out


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&rocedure. n the unsubscribe landing &age justbefore the final clic*' two lines could be added&ro&osing ot/er #onta#t met/ods to *ee& them u&

to date i.e. aceboo*' "witter account' your owncor&orate blog' your interest &age...

?ou can even &ro&ose to users' if they want' to writea message to e &lain the reasons why they want to

7jum& shi&7 and &ossibly together choose analternative means of keepin0 in to.#/ .8ithout trying des&erately to *ee& hold of them' asthey are obviously fed u&' try to find out where andhow you went wrong.


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" A brief /istory of spam

$et s end with a short story: %las' as we *now too

well spam affects the vast majority of all of theemails mailed5out and received around the world.

ut how did it all startE3rd #ay 1U/0' Gary T/.erk ' a mar*eter at Digital(>ui&ment Cor&oration' needed to hastily &romote

an event to &resent his com&any. %nd he didn t havea lot of time to get it done.So' he sent the following unsolicited &romotionalmessage to about si hundred &eo&le via %) % et:

8( , T,"( ? B " C #( S(( "!( 2424 % D !(%) % B""!( %#,$? D(Csystem524

%" "!( "8 ) DBC" )(S( "%", S 8( 8,$$ ( G,T, G, C%$, ) ,% "!,S

# "!. "!( $ C%", S 8,$$ (:

"B(SD%?' #%? U' 1U/0 5 2 #

!?%"" ! BS( 9 (%) "!( %,) )" $.%.;$ S % G($(S' C%

"!B)SD%?' #%? 11' 1U/0 5 2 #DB (? S ) ?%$ C %C!

S% #%"( ' C%

9 #,$(S S B"! S %,) )" %" %?S! )(' )" 141 % D)" U2;


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% 2424 8,$$ ( "!()( ) ? B " T,(8. %$S " "!()"()#, %$S 5$, (

D(Csystem524 S?S"(#S "!) BG! "!( %) % (". , ? B %)(B % $( " %""( D'

$(%S( (($ )(( " C "%C" "!( (%)(S" ,C( D(C) # )( , )#%", % B" "!( (VC,", G D(Csystem5

24 %#,$?.

,f you want to read the reactions of various reci&ients

of that fateful message' chec*out "em&letons ' butwhat we are more interested in is the fact that it was"huer* s email that started t/e spam ball rollin0 .

efore then' no one else had done anything li*e it 5also because it was e &licitly &rohibited from sendingunsolicited messages on %) %net.

"huer*' however' didn t have enough time to&ersonally write to every single contact' and thisunmalicious act sparked off today4s ni0/tmare .

% beautiful &iece by David Streitfeld a&&eared in "he$os %ngeles "imes a few years bac* that included amini5interview with "huer*. Summing u& his very&ristine actions' li*e a sort of mini5credo of the

s&ammer:
http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamreact.htmlhttp://www.templetons.com/brad/spamreact.html


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The whole idea was tell as many peopleas possible. Any other method making

phone calls writing real letters wouldhave been much more e!pensive andtaken much more time.

Since then' it has meant endless trouble foreveryone. ut /o! m.#/ money do spammers earnfrom t/eir a#ti2ities E

%le is #adrigal from the %tlantic as*ed the same>uestion' and found the answer in a &a&er written by#icrosoft s Mustin )ao and Google s David )eiley:about P8>> million per year on a2era0e ' with aninvestment of 1 to 10 million.

8e re not tal*ing about huge sums of money' buts&am costs are so small that the net gains aresubstantial: abo.t 5: times t/eir start .p #osts .%ccording to )ao and )eiley' it s enough that 1 out of2+'444 &eo&le is gullible enough to fall into the tra&.

,nitially it might seem that the game is &rofitable' butit is not. irstly' because the majority of the moneygenerated is not/in0 more t/an simple fra.d 9li*ethe fa*e ban* accounts or the classic 7 igerianscam7;. %nd secondly' because the generic s&am

activity 5 mailing5out an advertisement without&ermission to any address found on the internet 5
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/all-the-spammers-in-the-world-may-only-make-200-million-a-year/260814/http://www.davidreiley.com/papers/SpamEconomics.pdfhttp://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/all-the-spammers-in-the-world-may-only-make-200-million-a-year/260814/http://www.davidreiley.com/papers/SpamEconomics.pdf


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means ruining one s brand. 9 ot to mentioncom&romising deliverability' as discussed above;.%ny revenue obtained in this way !ill al!ays be

ins.ffi#ient ' and in any case entirely transitory: thee act o&&osite of the long5term strategy that shouldins&ire every successful email mar*eting cam&aign.

%nother interesting as&ect is the ne0ati2e e3ternality

of s&am' that is the indirect adverse effects of suchactivities com&ared to its direct benefits' is very high:7S&ammers weigh heavily on society and get little inreturn.7 ,n a nutshell' s&am causes enormousinformation &ollution com&ared to the gains made.,ts e ternalities are even higher than those generatedby car theft.

,t is obvious that such an im&act on society isunacce&table: the s&am &lague is much more &ainfulthan one might originally thin*. Bnfortunately' the

daily fight to counter it' as we have all seen' hasn t&roduced any major winning results yet. 9%t the endof 2411' , # hy&othesi=ed that spam !o.ld be dead!it/in : years 5 as a result of im&rovements in theanalytical ca&abilities of com&uters. robably it s tooo&timistic' but ho&efully there is some truth to it;.


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%ccording to )ao and )eiley' in any case' thes&ectrum of solutions ranges from a f.rt/erstren0t/enin0 of filters to some form of 0o2ernment

inter2ention . ,n &articular' they suggest ni&&ing the&roblem in the bud i.e. by increasing the cost of theiro&erations. ,n this way the &rofit from their activitieswould be reduced' and conse>uently the volume of jun* mail sent out.


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=

L,,KING A)EAD


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5" T/e deat/ of t/e email

% lot has been written about the alleged deat/ of t/e

email 5 and email mar*eting itself 5 as a result ofsocial networ*s.

n the contrary' searching and emailing are firmly .pt/ere amon0st t/e top .ses of Internet .

or now email has resoundingly managed to

withstand the su&&osed 7attac*s7 by the socialnetwor* &henomena. "he li*es of which includeaceboo* #essages' a*a the famous 7 roject "itan7

launched a year ago but turned out to be a real flashin the &an."hus' tal*ing about the 7death of the email7 is' in the&resent state of things' totally premat.re and lac*sany concrete foundations: the re>uiem has beensung far too many times' while email continues tobury its underta*ers.

8hat should be &ointed out' however' is that newinstant messaging habits or the use of alternativemethods of communication will ne0ati2ely affe#t itsf.t.re . f course' social networ*s almost alwaysneed an email account to wor*' but it will be used

more and more as a simple a##ess key ' limiting theactual email transmission to a minimum.


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$oo*ing at the results in terms of age' there isdefinitely a do!n!ard trend in the use of the emailamongst adoles#ents .

Guys and girls aged 12 to 1U are much moreinterested into 8hatsa&& than in their emailaccounts. "hey seem neither to be a s&ecific targetfor email mar*eting' nor users interested in this tool 5which they may consider for 7old fol*s7.

,n fact' instant messaging and social networ*s enableusers to communicate in a m.#/ more e3#itin0 and2aried !ay ' which includes games' lin* and &hotosharing' &ublic message boards etc. rom this &ointof view' it ta*es a minimum of honesty and self5criticism. ,f your goal is to sell prod.#ts to teena0ers 'a D(# cam&aign may not the be most a&&ro&riatetool: you have to go and discover where they aremore active.

So' the interesting >uestion is not whether emailingis dead 5 the answer being no 5 but if it has any /opeof s.r2i2in0 ' or better ada&ting' to new generations.

(ven in this case we can say the answer is positi2e .%s you get older you tend to &refer this more formalty&e of communication. (ntering the wor*force


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would also naturally re>uire one to ado&t this&ractice.

!owever' there is one last s.btle point to #onsider .

(verybody based their o&inion around the fact thateverything remains the same' when today steenagers become tomorrow s thirty5somethings'social media will &ass over to emailing and voila. ,tisn t clear if emailing is destined to remain in anycase: it #o.ld e2ol2e or per/aps e2en disappear allto0et/er . !ow many &rior technologies have metwith the same fate' after allE

"he >uestion becomes &articularly &ressing in termsof commerce: in the face of in#reasin0ly pa#kedinbo3es on one side' and ne! forms of#omm.ni#ation on the other' does email mar*etingreally have a futureE

"he re&ort 7(mail #ar*et' 24125241-7 by the)adicati Grou&' issued in 241 ' says that 7email ise &ected to grow to a W12 billion mar*et by 241- andemail traffic is estimated to grow to over 1U2 billionemails sent &er day by 241-7.%lso' according to the 7(mail #ar*eting ,ndustryCensus 24137 by (consultancyH%destra' 7/ A of


80/87

email mar*eters re&ort having an 7e cellent7 or7good7 ) ,' com&ared to just 3/A who do not test.7

So the answer seems to be a good 7yes7: but.% few years ago newsletters were more or less theonly direct and interactive mar*eting channel on theweb 5 e cluding dis&lay and *eyword advertising."oday the possibilities of intera#tion made available

by social media has definitely revolutioni=ed thelandsca&e and has made t/e pat/ to #on2ersions by.sers more fra0mented .!owever' it doesn t mean one has to have certainradical misgivings about email mar*eting strategy nora negative o&inion about the other channels: on thecontrary' it should be #aref.lly inte0rated into yo.rmarketin0 mi3 .%nd if the conversions come from other sources' itdoes not matter: the im&ortant thing is that emailstill has a &owerful effect on customers.

"hus' for the moment mar*eters can stay calm andthin* of something else: instead of com&laining' theyshould first take better #are of t/eir #ampai0ns andma imi=e the &ossibilities.


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8" T/e e2ol.tion of email s/arin0

"he 2iral rate of an email ' in terms of classic email

mar*eting' has always been measured based on then.mber of for!ards .

orwarding a friend is a clear signal the content oroffer was a&&reciated. or this very reason manymar*eters recommend adding an ad5hoc button inone s tem&late' so as to encourage users to clic*away' by ma*ing it easier and effortless to do.

ut things are changing 5 at a ra&id &ace. "hestatistics show that 7forwarding7 has dro&&ed since

244U whilst 7social networ* sharing7 has risen. "he&ositive im&act is even greater when it comes to lin*sto com&anies social communities.

,t doesn t sto& there. %n interesting internal analysiscarried out two years ago by u== eed 5 on all itswebsites containing &ortals such as "#X and theDaily #ail' and thus highly statistically significantnumber of users 5 revealed a large dro& in trafficfrom email clients li*e Gmail' !otmail' ?ahoo #ailand so on. %s illustrated in this gra&h:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbuchanan/email-dies-a-little-bit-morehttp://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbuchanan/email-dies-a-little-bit-more


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n the contrary' traffic originating from Googlesearches and aceboo* continues to increase.

"his would a&&ear to demonstrate a very sim&le andunsur&rising fact: t/e .se of so#ial net!orks /as0ro!n 5 than*s also to the introduction of new&latforms such as interest 5 and has gradually

started re&lacing other forms of communication' fore am&le wor* messages can now also be sent viaaceboo* instead of email alone.

,n addition' as we have already &ointed out in the&revious cha&ter' there is an a0e fa#tor at play ' or atleast a certain ty&e of audience: generally' emailing isused by more mature users who tend to be a little


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less familiar with social media tools. %ccording tou== eed this e &lains the greater im&ortance'

certain websites com&ared to others' give to the

7(mail this7 button. earing in mind that websitessuch as u== eed 5 full of viral and ty&ical 7socialnetwor*7 articles 5 wor* on &ublic sharing.

"his' however' casts also an interesting light on

s/arin0 in 0eneral . Sharing via email seems to besomet/in0 2ery different than a tweet or &astingsomething on interest s board. ,n the first case' thereci&ients are selected and it usually involves just aclose circle of friends or colleagues. ,n short' the twodifferent modes are worlds a&art: t/e first ise3tremely pri2ateJ t/e se#ond a lot more open .

ut' the idea that the two are somehow the same isstarting to ta*e hold: it is faster and easier to tweetcontent instead of sending it to a grou& of reci&ients

5 as it s li*ely that the same &eo&le follow the senderalso on "witter. 9,t is a fact that if the content is very&articular and can be understood only in the conte tof a circle of friends it shouldn t be flaunted on socialnetwor*s with the same light heartedness' but hereyou o&en u& the debate about our &ublic role on theweb;.


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,n summary' the winning model seems to involveagain a #loser inte0ration bet!een email marketin0and so#ial media marketin0 ' with the aim of enticing

users to s&read the message to a larger radius' thusfully e &loiting the &ower of social media.

"he &roduct or information e &erienced thereforegoes beyond the limited s&ace of the newsletter'

which in many ways begins to loo* more and moreli*e a ste&&ing stone 5 not only to their own landing&age' but also to other ty&es of sharing.


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C,NCL'SI,NDi0ital marketin0 and /appiness

erha&s the most interesting as&ect of digitalmar*eting' is the conce&t of fairness andtransparen#y ' when it comes to &romoting a &roductor service. "his a&&lies just as much to email' li*e anyother channel.

8hat e actly is a &otential client loo*ing forE "o getwhat he wants without being ri&&ed off. So' what is aloyal customer loo*ing forE "o remain faithful and tobe given &referential treatment. Sounds &retty basic'but many mar*eters still fail to reali=e that it s e actlythis basic starting &oint that we must always beginfrom.

"he most im&ortant innovation lies in thin*ing aboutmar*eting as a way to in#rease #.stomer satisfa#tion- and /appiness 5 rather than a set of tric*s designedto get as much money out of them as &ossible.

%nd not only that' it ll also hel& increase your ownha&&iness and satisfaction. y doing things the right

way and fostering a sense of trans&arency andtrustworthiness' !ill /elp yo. earn a lot more . %nd


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this isn t loo*ing at it from a &urely monetary &oint ofview: it ll ma*e your wor* easier' you won t have toworry about harsh criticisms for &laying dirty' and

you ll be able to slee& serenely.

,t s astonishing how many mar*eters' es&eciallythose wor*ing in large com&anies' still believe ri&&ingoff their users is the best way to ma*e a &rofit.

%ll this is #ompletely !ron0 ' and even more so in theo&en conversation world 5 where even the mostobscure bloggers can suddenly become "wittertrendy. ,m&osing unfair contractual clauses' such asthe classic tele&hone or internet com&anies often do'will sim&lyf.el ne0ati2e /ype a0ainst oneself .

%t the end of every year' it s standard &ractice to &ulltogether a number of mar*eting &revisions for thecoming years. Bnfortunately' they often are eitherbanal or ideas which fail to withstand the test of

time. ut out of the ones &ulled together byusiness2Community in December 2411' those of

%ndrew aird haven t dated one little bit: 7"he futureof mar*eting lies in engaging your customers 9and&otential customers; to be truly interested in yourmessages 5 and &erceive them as useful' not sim&lyas mar*eting.7
http://www.business2community.com/marketing/the-future-of-marketing-46-experts-share-their-predictions-for-2012-088529http://www.business2community.com/marketing/the-future-of-marketing-46-experts-share-their-predictions-for-2012-088529


87/87

So' that old &iece of advice to &ut yourself in theuser s shoes' but loo*ed at from a different angle:sto& thin*ing just in terms of statistics' mar*eting

forecasts and manuals' and start t/inkin0 in terms of.sef.lness . ffer &eo&le something interesting andtreat them as human beings' is all you need to do toget your business ahead.

Date post:	03-Jun-2018
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