ARTICLES Permission
Marketing
Hitting your target market can be a tricky business. Most consumers
loathe receiving cold calls and unsolicited mail, and advertising such
as TV, radio, and press can be expensive. All that unnecessary waste of
time, trees, and your marketing budget.
So what's a business to do?
The internet has opened up many channels for companies to market very cost-effectively using email. This is called Permission Marketing.
Permission marketing is also known as opt-in marketing. This means that somebody has OPTED IN to receive marketing messages from a company. For example, if you have an email newsletter that goes out to your customers, your customers would have given their permission verbally or via email for you to contact them further through email. Perhaps they signed up to your enewsletter from your website.
In the above example, you're using email to perform basic customer relationship management. So how can you as a business use email to acquire more customers? By using quality lists.
Email has had some bad press over the years, and yes we all get great hints on how to improve our sex lives and stock tips in our Outlook on a daily basis. These are spams (alias unsolicited messages) and a constant source of frustration, which is why the Australian government has set such heavy fines for spammers.
The heavy fines have spooked a lot of businesses into not using lists to aquire customers. This is understandable, but misguided. There are several very good quality consumer email lists or member databases that are available via your list broker that allow you to send highly targeted campaigns to consumers and in some cases, businesspeople.
For example,
you want to target consumers in Melbourne who are music lovers aged over
18 - you can do this very quickly using one of the many permission lists
available. The added bonus with using a list is you can push customers
through to your own website where they can join your database - a great
way to build or add to your own database!
And you can see how many people responded to your message. Email marketing is very trackable and accountable.
So where do these miracle lists come from?
List owners usually gather lists via their websites by offering consumers great deals on products and services. In return consumers accept advertising messages from companies via email. Members are always asked detailed questions when they sign up, so the list owner can segment the database.
When we want to book our ad campaign, we can select the audience, State or city, age group, and their lifestyle preferences, so there's minimal wastage.
Doesn't that just beat sending out a bunch of dead trees to people who don't want to know you?
The average cost for a campaign is around 25-35 cents per email and you're looking at around $400 in setup costs. Most list owners have a minimum spend, so budget for at least $1800-$2000 as a minimum per campaign. Response rates can be anywhere from 5% to 50% clickthrough to your website.
There are still questionable consumer email lists floating around. Always ask a list broker if the lists they represent are 100% opt-in. If they um and ahh, thank them and put the phone down. A quality list owner or list broker knows if the lists they represent are permission-based and wouldn't dream of helping you break the law or damage your brand!
Permission marketing really offers a 'full circle' approach to your marketing campaign because people genuinely want to read your message. If they like what they see, they'll click the link in the email to visit your website. Hopefully they'll become a subscriber to your own permission list...because you'll ask them.
Now I just wish there were more permission-based business lists around, but thanks to the Spam Act they are rare indeed!
Anti
Spam Laws - What You Need To Know
In April 2004, the Spam Act became law, in an effort to stop the
flood of junk emails and unwanted SMS'.
The penalty provisions of that law mean any businesses or individuals who send unsolicited commercial emails or text messages in breach of the law can attract very heavy fines. A message is "unsolicited" if the recipient has not given prior consent to being sent the message.
If your centre sends out any electronic communication to a database, or you are planning to, these laws affect you.
What Should
You Do?
1. Update all of your current email and SMS marketing templates to ensure
compliance
2. Always get consent before sending any emails or SMS' to new customers
3. Brief all staff about the new laws
4. Do not
purchase any lists from brokers unless you get a written guarantee that
all the names on their lists are opt in (also called a 'permission-based'
list.)
At
A Glance
An electronic message includes emails, SMS or instant messages, but not
telephone calls using a landline.
A 'commercial electronic message' is an electronic message which advertises, offers to supply, or promotes goods, services, and any other business.
The Act does not include messages which are factual in nature (e.g. news bulletins) but will apply if the message has a commercial purpose.
The Act prohibits the supply or use of "email harvesting" software.
Do
not send a commercial electronic message unless you:
a) have the express or implied consent of the recipient (e.g. when they
joined they ticked a box agreeing to receive electronic correspondence
from you.)
and
b) your message contains details about you or the company who sent the
message
and
c) includes an unsubscribe or opt-out facility.
FULL
DETAILS OF THE SPAM ACT CAN BE FOUND HERE
www.noie.gov.au
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