• home
  • about
    • emotional intelligence at work
    • GradStart (graduate performance at work)
    • Jeremy Marchant
    • this website
  • how we help
    • people
    • teams
    • businesses
    • other organisations
  • what’s the problem?
  • blog and diversions
    • Jeremy Marchant’s blog
    • newsletters
    • quotations
    • music
    • diverting videos
  • contact
emotional intelligence at work
jeremy@emotionalintelligenceatwork.com | 01453 764 615
Intelligence at Work Linkedin Link Intelligence at Work Twitter Link Intelligence at Work Youtube Link
  • essential
    • relationships at work
    • leadership
    • communication
    • emotional intelligence
  • people
    • leadership
    • personal growth
    • managing people
    • successful teams
    • conflict resolution
    • employability
  • business
    • networking and advocacy
    • business growth and change
    • customer service
    • employability
  • stories
    • work stories
    • more stories
  • short pieces
  • long reads
  • videos
    • Jeremy Marchant’s videos
    • Jeremy Marchant’s videos
    • emotionally intelligent videos

Blog

30
AUG
2013

Why is email marketing so poor?

by : Jeremy Marchant
comment : 0

432276_47063015

I’m constantly surprised how many businesses send out emails, or pay someone else to send out emails on their behalf, seeking to promote their business which simply irritate (or worse).  Here are ten things not do if you must send out marketing emails:

1   Don’t send out generalised emails, intended for people you don’t know, to people you or your business does know or has met. They will be at least puzzled and, possibly, offended. You need to segment your readership lists in more detail, sending out appropriately worded emails to each, and, potentially, individual ones to some recipients.

2   Don’t send out emails offering services to businesses for which those services are likely to be inappropriate. For example, bookkeepers might pick up work if you ran an email campaign to promote your marketing services for them; relationship counsellors are unlikely to.

3   Don’t send out emails describing the solutions you offer when you don’t know what problems (if any) the recipient has and therefore whether the email is relevant to them.

4   Don’t define your service in terms the reader may not understand, or which they understand in a different way than you do; eg, “email marketing”. Explain what you mean.

5   Don’t include wording in your email which mismatches with the way your services are described on your website. It just creates dissonance in any reader who has taken the trouble to look at your site.

6   Don’t make absurd, or unsupportable, statements, such as “We offer the perfect solution to…”. No, you don’t. Nothing’s perfect and, if it were, it would be unfeasibly expensive.

7   Don’t attribute wholly to your services a result obtained by your client in which you only played a part.

8   Don’t make grammatical mistakes in your email. It might (might) be OK for a plumber to do this. But for any business which has to live by the quality of its communication, don’t demonstrate to potential clients that your communication skills aren’t what clients need them to be.

9   Don’t tell the reader what to do. Heading an email, “Immediate action required”, is a demand that they meet your need and is unlikely to be received well: people don’t like demands being made of them.

10  Don’t assume recipients don’t experience these reservations just because they don’t tell you.  They may not even be consciously aware of them.


Remember, the meaning of a message is what the recipient makes of it.

It doesn’t matter what you intended, or what you think the email meant, or what you think the recipient should be able to understand. If the only result of your email is that you create resistance in the reader to your message, was it worth sending the message?

In case you think that a professional email marketing business wouldn’t make these mistakes, here is an email I received today from one which transgresses at least rules 1-7 and 10 above:

Hello Jeremy

People are far more likely to buy from a known and trusted source.

So, how much of your marketing is focused on relationship building?

Where do you start?

How about email marketing – the perfect medium for sharing relevant, helpful information with your target audience, creating awareness and respect for what you do.

It’s what we do here at Company X for our clients.

And the results?

Well one client was invited to pitch for a £75,000 contract in leadership training, another won a £36,000 a year account in the logistics business, and another has claimed that 70 – 80% of orders for office furniture come to him as a direct response to email marketing.

Interested?

It’s a conversation worth having. We can work with you to elevate your business to the level of known and trusted source. We have a very sophisticated method – and it works!

To start, please call me, XXX on XXX and I’ll tell all!

Kind regards [etc]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

captcha *

Further reading

  • Guilt: the gift that just keeps givingGuilt: the gift that just keeps giving
  • Games people play on LinkedIn—2: «Bring it on!»Games people play on LinkedIn—2: «Bring it on!»
  • Six basic reasons why software projects do badlySix basic reasons why software projects do badly
  • NHS reform:  missing something fundamentalNHS reform: missing something fundamental
  • How do you know it’s worked?How do you know it’s worked?
  • Why you can’t “measure” customer serviceWhy you can’t “measure” customer service
  • Is hate speech free speech?Is hate speech free speech?
  • How to run a customer call centreHow to run a customer call centre
  • How not to interview job applicants—1How not to interview job applicants—1
  • Why call centres can’t, won’t and don’t help youWhy call centres can’t, won’t and don’t help you