Great Lakes Green Pages

One thing that people think is that you can send anyone an email anytime.  Sure, if we have something to say to each other, even if it is a simple add me to your database or nice meeting you, then great.  I even welcome the personal, “This is what I do, and this is my company.  Can we help each other?”  However, just because we met at a party and I told you about myself and gave you a card, does not mean you should add me to your company’s newsletter email list for soap dispensers or floor wax spreaders.

These are interesting times.  Just a decade or so ago, the best way to reach your audience was to buy an ad.  Whether you made a commercial for television, made a radio spot, put an ad in a trade publication, or  even put an ad in the yellow pages or Better Homes and Gardens, traditional media marketing had the best sell through and response.  Still, people continued to create and send direct mail marketing to land in your mailbox.  Even now, I get ads and junk mail, though I have used some tools to reduce its amount significantly.  (I went to the Direct Marketing Association and signed up to reduce my junk mail clutter.  Surprisingly it seems to have worked.)  So how does one find your customers and get them to buy?  Most people turn to the internet.

Now, I have never really been bothered by spam.  I figure that spam is better than junk mail which takes paper, energy and more to produce.  However, I am now rethinking that.  Spam creation and distribution takes up a huge amount of energy that could easily be applied to more productive measures.  Furthermore, as people tighten their spam filters, it makes it harder for real email to get through-both from and to us.  So, it really begins to bother me when I talk to a salesperson and then they add me to their distribution list.  I hate signing up for anything online, as that just adds me to an email list that is sold around the net.  What I don’t get is that this is the same distribution model that was used for junk mail, and while it didn’t work for them, why would it start to work now.

When we started this business, I admit I rushed out to try and connect with every person I could and add them to my email list.  I didn’t send out a bunch of emails, but at least I had them in my Rolodex.  Problem is, now a few years later, a large portion have moved on to new ventures and new jobs.  What good is having a huge contact database if it is not accurate and most of them don’t do you any good.  When we started doing online branding and social media marketing as a service, I sent out our only email blast.  It was the perfect  time to clean up my database of old unusable emails and to remove contacts that didn’t want to hear from me.  Question is, I don’t know how many of them ended up in a spam filter anyway and how much time I wasted trying to get those emails to them.

So, if traditional methods do not work, then what does?  Social media and the internet.  People have turned to the newsletter as a way to get their message across.  While this sounds good, it is misleading.  Yes, people need to get added to the list, they may even have to sign up to get your content.  But i a world of spam, where hundreds of emails cross the desk of busy individuals, then your newsletter goes to the bottom of the read list.  By the time time they get the time to read it (if ever), you may have sent out another one or two.  Usually they are deleted without ever being read.  So what is the answer?

First off, if you do not have a blog these days, then you are missing the opportunity to add fresh new content to your website on a regular basis.  This new content is needed to drive traffic to your site.  Otherwise, your site becomes a billboard that most people have seen, but few pay attention to.  Secondly, you need to add social media to your marketing routine.  But adding it and using it are two different things.  If you only use twitter to talk about what you had for breakfast, then you are not really building the kinds of relationships that matter.  Facebook may be a time waster for lots of people, but so is television.  If you can get your message across to just a portion of the millions (or is it billions today) of Facebook users out there, then you are doing better than many.  Besides, if your friends “like” your site, then their friends see that and might check you out.  In this economy, word of mouth does more to promote your brand than any advertisement ever could.  Personal relationships are what matter.  These days, employers rarely even look at resumes and applications anymore.  They skim sites like LinkedIn for potential employees.  Service seekers are more likely to ask their twitter followers for recommendations than to check the Better Business Bureau.  Customers ask their friends where to eat, what to buy and who to hire for many of their goods and services.  So why are you wasting your time sending out a newsletter?

I personally am on a mission to reduce my email clutter.  I just unlisted myself from dozens of spam sending services.  I opted out of at least 15 newsletters today alone.  I didn’t want most of them in the first place.  We live in an online world with a 110 volt plug at the end, and if you are using email as your best means of advertising, then you are missing the boat.  Just my opinion.  If you don’t agree that is fine, but don’t tell me in a newsletter, because I won’t read it.