I need to warn all marketers out there: you may feel very enthusiastic about your new service and want to shout about it from the rooftops but please stay on the right side of the law!

Permission marketing (a term originally coined by Seth Godin) is the name of the game when you are sending newsletters: you need potential customers to opt in to receive information.

Sending them 6 emails and then automatically registering them on your website is NOT permission marketing! Unwanted promotional messages are like watching a TV channel full of adverts – what do you normally do? You switch channel.

Without naming names, how not to do email marketing sums up as this: you grab emails from the web, add them to your mailing list without consent and start sending unsolicited names. To note: I never replied to any of these emails, which obviously to these people meant I wanted to receive all the 6 emails they sent!

After receiving the last email from the same company I wrote to them to complain and ask to be removed from their list immediately.

 

How to do email marketing without spamming

If you are unsure about how to market your new product or service, please follow these simple guidelines and avoid being marked as a spammer:

• don’t use social media or searching for info@ email addresses to send bulk emails
• don’t keep sending emails to the same person/company if you haven’t received a response
• use a proper email marketing application displaying a clear UNSUBSCRIBE button or text in each email message you send
• only send an email if a potential client has expressed an interest in receiving your information
• focus on building a strong online reputation first – don’t start sending newsletters without providing potential customers with enough background information on your company. If Google returns no results on your company, you’re in a risky position.

Do you have any more tips you’d like to share with others? Please add them in the comments.