The Messaging Times

One of the benefits of working with a company whose products are used in over 160 countries by individuals and organizations of all types and sizes, is that you get to talk to some really interesting people. Recently, I talked to the Harlem Globetrotters and a guitarist for the Oak Ridge Boys, both GroupMail customers.

More often than not, the questions come from our not-so-famous (but equally important) customers, like one gentleman who asked if GroupMail could send messages to a list of six million email addresses that he had acquired [yesterday]. Of course, my first inclination was that this list of six million was acquired by some means other than opt-in, permission marketing. I explained that technically, the software allows users to create groups of an unlimited size, but that processing messages to such a volume of recipients would necessitate a robust mail server among other things. It turns out, he wanted to just send them through a free mail server like Hotmail without spending any money on anything but the software.

For the sake of all of us, I dissuaded him.

Another call was a bit more realistic in scope. A woman had an opt-in list of 5,000 recipients and wanted to use GroupMail to send personalized HTML newsletters to her list on a monthly basis. Her ISP (one of the big ones) has an email sending policy that prohibits customers from sending more than 200 messages per day through their STMP mail server. They also block Port 25 so GroupMail’s Direct Send mode wasn’t an option. Bulk Send mode doesn’t allow personalization, so that wasn’t an option for her either. I explained that GroupMail or any other desktop email marketing software doesn’t circumvent the email sending policy of her ISP. I suggested that she:

1. Contact her ISP to see if they have a business account that allows more messages to be sent each day (Comcast, for example, allows residential customers to send 1,000 messages per day while their Business customers can send 24,000 per day);
2. use a secondary outgoing mail server, like AuthSMTP, to route her messages through; or
3. acquire a web hosting company who offers full SMTP services and process your messages through your domain-hosted server. Sometimes, domain-hosted SMTP servers are more liberal with their email sending policy than large ISPs

Again, she didn’t want to spend any money on sending her messages out.

As your email list grows, so does your budget. While email remains to be the most cost-effective method for communicating directly with your prospects and customers and provides the best ROI; it’s not free. Aside from the costs required for email marketing software and access to a supporting outgoing mail server, effective email marketing requires time and effort on list maintenance, design, testing, delivery and measurement.

Effective email marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. But it certainly isn’t free.

Update: Seth Godin discussed another cost of email marketing today in his post, Friction

Post script: a tween is a widely used marketing term for a preteen or a preteenager - a person under the age of thirteen years of age who is between adolescence and teenage years. Generally the term is restricted to those close to reaching the age of thirteen, especially boys aged 11-12 years old, and girls aged 12 years old.

People buy things for a variety of reasons. I reluctantly bought 4 new tires for my Suburu Outback recently because some idiot left a nail laying on the road which I managed to drive over (talk about a needle in the haystack). Sometimes, you really need something, like a tire for your car or a computer for work. More often than not, though, we buy things because we want them. I didn’t need the Arctic Monkeys CD or the canoe, but I bought them anyway.

* To see this and other comic strips from The Messaging Times, just click the strip.

Marketers respond to needs and wants differently. They may offer a range of products at different price points to respond to the variety of budgets of the people who need them. They may also include extra features or special designs for those who want them. Often, the marketing to needs and wants are combined. When I bought the tires that I needed, the salesman asked if I wanted the treads cut in a certain way for better traction on Mt. Baker.

Often, marketers concentrate on converting basic needs into wants. They understand that we have to buy something if we need it, so they focus on the wallet share by playing to our wants in a time of need and try to persuade us to purchase the upgraded model or extended service for the product we need. They do this by creating stories that play to our emotions. These sunglasses are cool. I want to be cool. Brad Pitt is cool. Brad Pitt has these sunglasses. I want these sunglasses. Sometimes, we’ll be convinced (or convince ourselves) that we need those sunglasses.

Think about the products and services that you purchased recently. Did you need them or want them? What convinced you to purchase something beyond your basic need or want? What story was told? What emotion was involved?

Twitter has taken the world by storm. Our new tendency to create and consume content in continuous streams of small chunks is culturally significant. The internet is becoming the cliff notes of content. We simply don’t have the time to read through pages of material these days.

As a matter of fact, the average time spent on a website before moving along is 50 milliseconds. But by shortening the length of our communication to 140 characters or less requires that we pay attention more often to updates as they come in. This can put a strain on anyone who is trying to do other things. Some consider it a serious distraction from productive work. Others praise the real time connection with others.

* To see this and other comic strips by
The Messaging Times, just click the strip!
…

Ok, this post is entirely too long considering the subject. You can read more about my thoughts on microcontent and the importance of brevity in online communication by reading Being Brief.

…and, of course, you can follow me on Twitter at messagingtimes.

There are always conversations (1, 2) around the email marketing water cooler about email frequency. Very interesting stuff. Sometimes, I give marketers a hard time for over-analyzing things. Other times, I find myself looking for metrics and being very glad that one of them took the time to measure whatever it is that I was looking for.

Until recently, email marketers sent their messages on weekly or monthly delivery schedules – in line with traditional broadsheet publication cycles. A few years ago, companies like Amazon started showing us how email could be used effectively when messages are sent in response to customer actions and behaviors rather than on a predetermined publication schedule. Buy a book, get an email with a recommendation for another. Visit a product page, get a promotional email for that product. Behavior-triggered email is used more and more today in an attempt to make emails more timely and relevant to the recipient. This strategy is helping to change the frequency paradigm for many email marketers – particularly larger email marketers with the resources available to implement and manage robust behavioral campaigns.

Today, some email marketers are even using psychographic overlays and heat-mapping to optimize their strategy. Some of us might think that this is going a bit too far. Welcome to the new world of marketing.

Flylady.com turned email upside down as early as 1999 by serving up home organization tips and reminders to recipients in the volume of 500+ each month. My wife subscribed for a while, until the volume became too burdensome for both our inbox and her commitment threshold and she eventually unsubscribed. She still knows people who look forward to receiving messages from flylady every few minutes of the day.

The emergence of websites like Twitter and Jaiku have prompted discussions and debates around the Internet about our desire (or lack thereof) for a continuous connection (frequency) to the conversations taking place in those online communities which interest us (relevance). It seems that more and more people feel the need to be continuously connected to multiple streams of communication: SMS, blogs, RSS readers, twitter/jaiku, etc.

So what about email as a continuous conversation platform? I suppose that it already is for the personal communication that we enjoy with family and friends. Whether people want to be in touch so regularly with a commercial emailer depends, I guess, on the value of each message that is sent. A joke of the day, puzzle of the day or tip of the day have all been used successfully in the past to keep recipients engaged with publishers on a daily basis. I think that it really comes down to common sense. Take a look at your own email offers – whether they be newsletters, promotions or updates. How often would you like to receive them if you were on your own recipient list? More often than not, content determines frequency.