A Recipe for Marketing Failure
I feel a rant coming on, but I don’t know exactly who I’m ranting at. Let me explain…
At least once or twice a week I get a reply to an email that I’ve sent to my list members that’s nothing more than reverse marketing. For anyone who’s not familiar with that term, it means you market to people whose lists you’re on.
In other words, people on my subscriber list hit the reply button and don’t actually ‘write’ an email to me. They just include information about some product or program that they’re pushing. Â
Now, the reason I don’t know who I’m ranting at here is because I don’t know if this is a common ‘marketing method’ among newbies who just happen to think of it and think it’s a good idea, or if some marketer actually wrote a report on using this method and sold it to newbies.
Either way - newbies, take heed…
This is not the way to market your products or programs. It’s nothing more than spam, because I didn’t ask to hear about your products. You asked to hear about mine, therefore you double opted in to my mailing list, giving me permission to email you. I did not give you permission to email me.
Of course, if you ever have questions, comments or joint venture offers, I’m more than happy to read your emails, and I reply to every one that I receive.
But please don’t get on my bad side, or that of other marketers, and start your marketing career with a bad reputation by using reverse marketing methods. Starting off on the wrong foot will only lead to failure.
It’s much easier to ‘play nice’ and build a good reputation from the get-go, than it is to re-build your reputation after you’ve had a bad one.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Hi Denise
this is good advice and I recognize what you are saying because I also sometimes get subscribers doing the same thing with me.
This is certainly not a good way to get attention and is a sure way to tick people off.
I do however have a number of subscribers which I have got to know better and even consider them friens now.
I have also opted in to the peoples newsletters or services through chatting with them but people who just reply casually to my e-mails with offers just get deleted.
Thanks for your newsletters, (yes I do actually read them0 and have a nice day.
Ian Wilson
September 14th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Hi Denise,
As a newbie, I haven’t done this, but have felt like doing it several times.
I think that part of it has to do with the frustration of not being able to get the results one expects. (We, newbies by-and-large) seem to have a drive-through mentality, large part pushed by online marketers who easily mislead the reader into thinking that it is real easy to make millions overnight. When this doesn’t happen, newbies try any short cut they can think of.
It reminds me of the advice I would get about sending the offers I received in the mail back to the markerters in their postage paid envelopes.
Unfortunately, the offers the (us) newbies fell far, are nothing but junk and in frustration some of us think we’ll get anywhere by doing this. And, that is too bad.
Another reason this may happen is lack of education or understanding about email lists and processes. More often than not, a newsletter goes out from an autoresponder or some such software application and the reply-to email address isn’t going to be read by a human, therefore clicking reply is a waste of time.
Although I am sorry that you have been sent this kind of reply, I think it is more pitiable than something to fret over.
Thanks for the post, it was interesting to read and specially for the newsletter. I have always enjoyed it and end up with a smile on my dial.
Have a great today.
joe
September 14th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Thanks for your comments, guys. I agree that as a newbie it’s hard to know what to do and what not to do. But a few people who have done this to me have been around for awhile, so they should know better.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate you both.
Denise