Bad Email Marketing vs. Good Email Marketing: What's the Difference? [My Take]
First, I want to apologize ahead of time if you fall into the bad email marketer category. This isn't intended to serve as the blame game. I'm not in the good one either YET. I just want to share my thoughts on what makes me stay on an email list vs. what makes me go, and see what your thoughts are as well...
I've signed up to hundreds (maybe even thousands) of email lists! And, there are chances that you have too.
You might see a brand and from the exterior, they have some interesting things going on: you resonate with their blog posts and videos, and they have a pretty good optin, so they have your attention. Then, you're expecting to get some awesomeness in your email, and things just don't turn out that way.
Unfortunately, instead of getting real value, you're getting headlines like:
- "How I was able to..."
- "I made $15k overnight!"
- "Make money while you sleep"
- "Only 2 more hours until this deal ends"
- "1 more hour"
- "30 minutes"
- "We had technical difficulties so we're giving you another chance"
- "Extended sales"
And, every message follows it up with pure disappointment: sales pitch after sales pitch, and one elaborate selfish story after another--this may just be my worldview in play, but those types of emails are what I call "bad email marketing".
Does Bad Email Marketing Get Results?
Yes. Bad email marketing does get results which is why people do it. They give pressure to the reader to act within a certain timeframe. They use elaborate stories to make you believe by purchasing their product or service, it's possible you'll get the result they're telling you about. Sometimes, they guilt trip you or insult you to make you feel like your missing something or your going to rot if you don't buy their product or service. Haha. Maybe not "rot", but you get what I'm saying, right?
The problem is...
Alot of times the chances are slim or none at all. You can't actually get the results based on the initial product offer. The stories may be exaggerated or miss quite a few of the pieces. They go something like...
"I always wanted to understand internet marketing, and I played around trying to get it for years. I couldn't really make it work until I got this one (tool or tactic they want you to buy)."
What they don't tell you is all of the days they worked, practiced, and how many other things they needed to do or understand that built them to their success (if they're successful). Or, they don't tell you how many upsells you need to buy or that you have to turn around and imitate them (while also technically becoming their competitor).
I hate that.
They give stories to make an emotional connection, but the product they're selling isn't actually capable of giving you that outcome. Sometimes, it's not the product's fault, but it's the fact they get you to focus on the wrong metrics in the emails, and the fact that the emails in general are disconnected from you, your goals, and your challenges.
Good Email Marketing
In contrast, I've been thinking about my favorite email marketers: the ones whose emails I'm excited to open and even anticipate (which is very few). Instead of doing what the bad email marketers do, they put alot of time and emphasis into making sure their emails are valuable and they thoroughly get to know their audience.
It reminds me of what we do in the offline world. Let's use the example of going to a live event...
If you haven't been to a live event, just go with me for a second. Think about your school classes growing up or another environment where there's lots of people and the opportunity to build relationships.
When you go, you don't expect to appeal to everyone. Instead, you'll find people that kind of self-elect to be in your "something in common--want to follow up on break" group.
In the online world, this may be your blog traffic--they don't really know you, but they've self-elected that you have a common interest or information they want.
Now, you've followed up on break, but the break was short. The conversation was very interesting and you want to stay in touch. You somehow get their contact information so you can meet more and have more conversations on the same topic.
Isn't this how we should begin our email journey? Shouldn't the pretense be something like...These people have expressed interest in (blank topic) and they obviously want to learn more from you on that. Don't conversations offline go sour when you constantly brag about your results, flash them, or ask for money all the time like the bad email marketers do?
Wouldn't it be worse if you had a clock and pushed them to buy something from you sporadically (especially when you're selling multiple items without the buyer getting proof any of them work). Why do online marketers do that? The upsell gang is the worse! Granted, the people may want to buy from you, but the approach should be a little different...
With good email marketing, I've noticed the emphasis is on building the relationship, giving value, and understanding MY journey and how they can help ME--not about telling me about THEIR journey because that may be completely irrelevant to where I'm at. Shouldn't we be in the what's in it for the end user gang?
I've been taking time to remember my genuine and deepest relationships offline and what happened at the connection phase--at the very beginning. I've been asking myself, "What actions did I contribute that led to subsequent follow up and interest?"--that's the same strategy I want to use in email marketing, and I suggest you take time to do that as well. It will help you to decide YOUR unique approach to relationship building everywhere: online and offline--we're all different in how we do this.
For example, I'm usually outgoing. My deepest relationships are mostly with people I saw commonalities with, and I approached them. We may have made eye contact or been reading a similar book or like a similar show, or something that made me notice this commonality.
From there, I personally try to find more things we have in common and when we talk, we only talk about those topics unless we notice another topic we have in common or another interest area they want to know about. As a result, I have mommy friends, married friends, business friends, and the list goes on.
I think email marketing segmentation and targeting gives us the same power, but we need to be careful to use the tools and put things in place that enable the same natural flow to take place.
These are some things I'm keeping in mind...
1. Some people will buy fast and some people will buy years later, and I should be ready for both
2. I want to honor their attention and trust, and not disappoint or loose it for the sake of a fast buck
3. Help first and sell later
8. I have multiple interests, so I need to have a nurturing sequence that addresses the widest crowd and ways to segment them based on self-elected interests--this may take years to fully complete so Ill be doing this bit by bit.
This is where I am today. I have yet to put all of these thoughts into action, but I'm working on it, and I'm on my way.
Also, in keeping with what AJTrimble said in his post "8 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Affiliate Marketing", I've been thinking about how common it is in our industry that people sell using outcomes. "Make 15K overnight", "10X your income in 7 Days", "Get 1000 subscribers Fast", and so on. Is this realistic? Not 99% of the time. As he said, it's a metric, we really can't control, so how can a product creator control that?
As a result, I've been thinking about motivating by using headlines or messaging that's actually getting the end user to focus on what they CAN control. Things like "Improve your writing speed", "Create your first 30 Blog Posts", and so on. I think it's better to have them focus on what's within their control because the other route will make them feel like failures when they can't control it or live up to it, and that's not what I want.
Now what are your thoughts? Do you agree with my assessment of bad email marketers vs. good ones? Do you like the bad email marketers (as I've categorized them here)? What else don't you like to recieve in your email box? What types of emails do you like to recieve? What characterizes them? What do you think will distinguish your style in relationship building online?
Recent Comments
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I've subscribed to quite a few lists over the years.
Some send targeted emails, based on my previous purchase history. These emails are great and I will read them.
Others are prolific marketers who will send you an email EVERY DAY with a story of how someone made $$$ and you can do the same or hard-selling you a product or service that they have used.
Email Marketing is such a powerful tool and there is so much to it like segmentation, checking who has opened your email and so on. However, I believe that some marketers do not look at their stats (or have any metrics in place) and will just blast their list with promotions.
I want to target my customers which will take a lot of work and setting up but will lead to better conversions in the long run.
Thanks for another great post Tiffany!
I agree with you Jackie! I think that's the best thing to do if you want to keep email followers for a long time. I don't know anyone who wants to constantly be blasted with bragging or ongoing promotions.
It's interesting, as previously (before learning about Affiliate Marketing), I didn't take notice of things like this but I see how planning and using tools purposefully will help in the long run.
Thanks for the thoughtful post.
Rather than setting a moral tone about this, I think it's more useful to discuss effective vs ineffective email marketing.
If some type of marketing doesn't accord with your values/ethics, then you will be better off doing something else and leaving that sort of marketing to someone else.
Pursuing WA affiliation also requires competing with a bunch of WA members. Surely competition itself is not bad? The owners of WA seek participants and memberships without developing deep personal bonds. I don't mind not having a personal relationship with them because this site provides a lot of value otherwise.
To sum up, if you're certain about how you're going to help A LOT OF people, you'll recognize you cant be cozy friends with all of them!:-) cheers Marc
I didn't think about it as a moral tone, but I understand why you would perceive it that way. The terms "good" or "bad", however, that's my opinion, and I still mentioned that "bad" is effective so changing the terms wouldn't work.
I wasn't intending to "get cozy" with my email list, but even if you look at companies like Amazon, they email you offers based on your previous interests--that's what I'm saying. If they didn't do that, surely, they would be less effective than they are.
You have to use the technology available to learn about the people who express interest in what you/I are doing--that's the core of my point here. "Bad" email marketing imposes too much in my opinion.
I'll think more on your points though. Thanks.
Hi there, I commented because you asked for our thoughts. From me, you're going to get just that, not some comment like, 'great post, thanks for sharing' :)
The words 'good and bad' are value assessments based on morality, not effectiveness.
Getting 'cozy' was my term for building a relationship -- you asked about online relationship building. That implied getting cozy with your reader on your list.
Your example, now, of Amazon, is not about a relationship they have with anyone, but of how they offer interesting and engaging material.
I agree, that they do and I use Amazon a lot! But I don't feel I have any sort of relationship with Jeff Bezos or anyone at Amazon; in fact, it's very impersonal what they do, not at all cozy yet extremely effective, you must agree.
Thanks for sharing ideas.
I think this is just a terminology thing. When I used terms like "good", "bad", or "relationship", they obviously have a connotation to you that's taking this debate in a direction I didn't intend for it to go.
While you may think the relationship with you and Amazon is quite impersonal, I'd bet their analytic data doesn't look that way. They email birthday offers, anniversaries, child's birthdays, offers based on your site activity, and so many other things. If you really sit back and think about it, it can even be creepy! They know their clients for sure, and whether you want to call it that or not, that's a relationship. I'll just agree to disagree about the terminology on that.
I wasn't using "good" and "bad" to describe morals. I defined it in the post with an example of what good and bad means. I also want to highlight that the terms good and bad are my opinions and I mentioned that.
I appreciate people like you who aren't simply going to say "thanks great post". Although, I appreciate both: people who agree and people who don't. I appreciate the dialogue that shares various viewpoints, so my expectation wasn't for everyone to agree.
I even have an apology or disclaimer at the beginning because I was sure someone would disagree or feel "pointed out", but I'm simply sharing my opinion and asking for yours.
I was really looking for opinions about what email marketing you prefer vs. what you don't prefer and so on (commensurate with the questions I asked).
okay. In that case, I'll answer you below. One comment -- I find Amazon's programmed birthday cards to be fake coziness. There's no real relationship to be had in getting programmed birthday greetings. My personality doesn't require being faked into feeling loved by Amazon, so to speak.
It's true that good/bad are often used in terms of effectiveness and that's how you meant it, fair enough. But I think it's more clear to speak of effectiveness, if that's what is meant.
Answers to your specific questions
Now what are your thoughts? Do you agree with my assessment of bad email marketers vs. good ones? -- no, but as you meant effective vs ineffective, in general, I do agree.
Do you like the bad email marketers (as I've categorized them here)? -- I neither like them nor dislike them. I can rank them as effective or ineffective in a non-emotional way.
What else don't you like to receive in your email box? -- I don't get emotional about marketing offers but I will say that some email marketers send the stuff all too frequently in a repetitive way. I don't like repetitive offers. However, they are trained to try and try again until removed from the list. That's fine, but I'm not impressed by it.
What types of emails do you like to receive? -- I like to received emails from friends and people I have rapport with. I like interesting offers that are new and different from previous ones.
What characterizes them? -- see above
What do you think will distinguish your style in relationship building online? -- my goals aren't to help a small amount of people, but a large amount of people. see previous comments about the impossibility of building a relationship with many many many people.
cheers marc
Thanks Marc! What email marketing method do you plan to use to help a large amount of people?
no problem :)
I'll use what is known as a one-page miracle website, otherwise known as a landing page or a splash page, offer a free gift on that page (an ebook I write) and collect their emails, afterwards direct them to youtube videos, offer video courses, affiliate products, and so on. Make it interesting to engage in the idea that people get bored with repetitive stuff, like I do :)
I get that. Do you plan to do segmenting and targeting to make sure you're delivering relevance every time? That's really the core of what I meant by "relationship building". Basically, using tools to gauge activity and serve relevance on an ongoing basis. Do you plan to do anything like that? I agree with the "repetitive" thing.
It sounds like you plan to put most of your effort in your backend and very little in the front end. I'd love to know how that works out for you. Will you be posting results posts here?
That's a good question and very relevant. I would say that before any of that, the core client avatar needs to be honed and polished. That way my core customers are better assured getting what they want. After that, I may identify different segments that vary from that avatar and segment a new avatar. No reason at all not to use the many tools to measure effectiveness, since I seem to be so big on that, don't I? :)
I guess since you'll be doing one page, you'll have to have a very small niche? Or, you'll have to do alot of segmenting on the backend to stay tailored and relevant.
It's a little easier when you have a blog because you can have several optins that segment the audience on the front end--that's my opinion though.
I'd really love to hear more about how it goes for you. Best wishes.
In fact I will be posting results and I will be doing some video trainings soon! Please stay tuned :)
I've learned that the back end prep is very important. for example, if you are going to do a video channel subscription, you need to have at least three upcoming videos in the series prepped before you release the first one.
This is not to say I won't polish the front end but there is no point in having a front end sticking out there without the back end of the iceberg there to prop it up, does that make sense?
Kind of. I'm wondering where you're going to get your leads from though. Are you going straight for paid ads or something? I'm imagining a store that's fully stocked and the owner is inside waiting on the people to come in--that's not the way I'd do it.
Blogging is the lead generator, the backend does more of the conversion work, but you can't have one without the other. I'd even venture to say, it's more important to have the lead gen system set up first before the lead conversion system, or even before working a lot of product or service development.
I get what you're saying, and I've done that before with different business models: where I focus on product development or service design more before getting the leads, sales, calls, emails, and attention. I won't do that again.
blogging is a tedious and time-consuming lead generator that takes a long time and is unreliable, dependent upon google algorythims we have NO control over.
Paid ads are far more reliable and measurable, too. So Yes, paid ads, but only if the paid ad converts to an email address. not to a product sale for someone else who gets the email address.
You tube is the future of blogging, anyway and I'm comfortable on camera.
I don't disagree that you must have a complete system before you have a system that works. Otherwise, it's not a system, right?
I don't think you entirely get what I am saying because I'm not providing all the details for you to be able to. I'm certainly confident you would understand it, though.
What you might want to do is check out Legendarily Marketer and their 15 day free training you'll have a better idea of what I'm getting at... The organization of what you are doing with Bootcamp isn't the most streamlined training out there...as great as WA is overall, I don't necessarily agree that blogging and blogging and blogging is the best way to make money and is certainly not the fastest way.
It's pointless to develop a product that there is no demand for. So, I think you have to combine intuition about a niche with good niche research and make sure there are customers who can pay for the service and who want to do that.
cheers
I agree what you're saying that this isn't the fast way, and I don't think it's advertised that way either. I've taken the Legendary Training and even their Affiliate Training. They're teaching Youtube, no or very little Wordpress (mostly Clickfunnels), and paid ads (including social media, search and solo ads). I get what they're doing.
In my profile, you saw I also did freelance marketing for companies: one who was spending $60,000 monthly on ads. I get what paid ads can do. I see the advantages and disadvantages of their plan.
It's your preference how you're going to build your business. I prefer this route.
I blog nearly daily, I create videos (3-4 daily starting 3-weeks ago), and I do offline speaking on occasions. I plan to scale up my marketing plan from there.
It's certainly true that any plan or method has advantages and disadvantages. If you've seen what LM does, then you do get it: )
By no means am I suggesting not to blog, what I am saying is that it's not the fastest gun in the west.
In any event, thanks, I've enjoyed the discussion. and thanks for the follow :)
I get it. I've known of Dave Sharpe for years.
I don't think there's a quick route. One of the 1st steps in building a business is building a reputation: whichever method you use to get attention is up to you. After the attention is there, you have to be good at keeping it.
Best wishes on the route you've chosen.
I haven`t ever done email marketing but if I do I know the best way to do it now. Thank you.
You're welcome Linda. I'm still on the journey learning too, but these are the foundational premises I'll be building on.
Every bit of information helps the journey.
To be honest I don't think that journey ever ends. The older you get the more you realise how much you don't know.
When you mentioned bad email marketing, that reminded me of one specific strategy used. The strategy is to keep sending sales pitches until the subscriber buys or unsubscribes.
On the other hand, I have been on one email marketer's list for 20 years. I read most of his emails and occasionally buy something that fits into what I am doing.
Wow! What makes you stay on his list? What types of emails does he send? How does he stand out? Do you read all or most of his emails or just ones where the headline catches you?
First of all, he is a regular guy, not one of the flashy guru types. He does not show up on anyone's list of best anything.
He promotes affiliate marketing products from several affiliate networks as well as his own products. I bought his internet marketing book in 1997, which was highlighted in Entrepreneur magazine.
He buys a lot of marketing tools and reviews them for his subscribers. And I occasionally will buy one. plus promote them myself.
That's cool. I would like to sustain long relationships on my email list also. Not just be the sell-sell-sell type or the type that exaggerates too much. What's his name? I want to check him out.
I totally agree with you. I seriously hate those emails where they have absolutely nothing of value in them until you buy in. Literally nothing. Just a story about how they found this mysterious product or service or how their lives changed, or other testimonials. I unsubscribe from those and never buy. I seriously, seriously hate pushy marketing! You are spot on!
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I totally love this post.
It has given me the boot up my backside I needed and some fresh ideas. Email marketing is my most hated subject but I need to address it.
Just a few things you mention I can really relate to. Thank you Tiffany. I need that kick...
Awesome post.!!
Debs :)
I'm glad it was helpful for you Debs. I can't say it's been my favorite subject either because it seems like talking to a quiet room, but once we both master building relationship thru email, it should feel more like how we interact other places. We'll know how to build those relationships and feel good about having another super power.
I do hope so Tiffany. It does get me down even thinking about it lol. It really is a part of my business I'd rather not do.
It has to be done as it converts.
Keep me updated with how you go and thank you again Tiffany. :)
You're welcome Debs. We'll get better with practice. One step at a time.