Much like “snail mail” fills our mailbox, e-mail fills our inbox with lots of information we need and lots of junk that we don’t. Every e-mail sender does so in the name of good communication with customers and for that purpose alone e-mail is unsurpassed at sending larger amounts of information that your customer, or sometimes former customer, needs to know when making purchasing decisions or expecting results from you. Yet there are a lot of marketing folks who send unsolicited e-mails as a way to get clients. This tactic must be successful since so many people use it from all over the world.

With respect to unsolicited “cold” emails, marketers who use this tactic feel that of all e-mails send a “successful” campaign has an open rate of 3%. So a small group (3%) of recipients must open the e-mail let alone act on it for the campaign to be successful so expectations are low to begin with. Companies like Constant Contact and MailChimp have taken measures to ensure those whom you send e-mails to know they are coming and will allow them. Use of these tactics can push acceptance as high as 12%. To make matters harder though, governments are passing laws and tech companies are acting on them to require “unsubscribe” procedures on e-mails, unmask senders so you know who they are, and prevent bulk e-mails sent by the thousands from taking place on servers.

So how can e-mails be used for good in marketing? We use them to communicate with our customers and so should you as well as SMS messages to get attention to show customers that they need to wade through their e-mail inbox for our message with important information they wanted. You typically only get the grace to e-mail, and text, someone if you are doing business with them in some fashion but this only goes so far. But if one shouldn’t use e-mail, how do you keep your name in front of them for the next opportunity? That grace seems to extend if you have done business with them, at least in the e-mail inbox and while you do business with them for SMS. So once a week is the max you should send e-mails though twice a month is probably the sweet spot. A good referral program can also help keep your name in front of them along with occasional (in that twice monthly piece) reactivation techniques like coupons or promo codes.

Using these tactics won’t grind a server to a hault or violate mass e-mailing policies but will make the most of keeping your name in front of your previous customers. If you have questions about this just comment on social media or e-mail sales@blog.jklworks.com.