E-mail Marketing - What You Need to Know

by Chad Carr

A false start carries serious consequences, so learn from my mistakes.

Recently I decided to dip my toe into the world of e-mail marketing companies. I signed up for a very reasonably priced account that would let me send good looking e-mails with graphics, links and lots of feedback reporting. I used their on-line templates and wizards to create a moderately good looking e-mail and sent it out to a small list of clients and prospects.

The response was fantastic. I could see the e-mail was getting opened and people were clicking through for more information about the webinar I was advertising. I had more people register for (and eventually show up for) that webinar than I generally had after a week of phone calls.

Based on this initial response, I decided to jump into the deep end of the pool and start doing big e-mail blasts out to all the e-mail addresses I had accumulated over the last 10 years.

I created another reasonably attractive e-mail using the same tools I had used before, and this time I sent it out to a list of almost 4,000 e-mail addresses. I was ecstatic with the initial response. Out of those 4,000 e-mails, over 600 people opened the e-mail and I had more than 50 people register for the free webinar I was promoting. Sure, I had about 500 e-mail addresses that were bad, but after 10 years, that seemed okay; and while I couldn't figure out why anyone would report my e-mail as spam, only 7 people did, and again out of 4,000 e-mails sent, I thought that was really pretty great.

After this tremendously successful campaign, I was smitten. I had found a new way to communicate with the industry professionals I serve, and I was never going back.

Then I got the following e-mail from the e-mail marketing company I was using:

"Your account has been suspended pending an account review. Please call us immediately to discuss your list management and e-mail practices as you are in violation of our user agreement. For our protection, you will not be able to use this service until further review."

Honestly, I wasn't that worried when I made the call, but it didn't take long for the polite but stern account rep to make it clear I had fallen seriously out of their good graces and I would have to make some radical changes if I wanted to continue to use their service. The conversation lasted about 50 minutes and at times felt like a verbal spanking. The solution they required was drastic; I was not going to be able to use this service to e-mail anyone unless a) they happened to be in the initial 600 people who opened my first e-mail; or b) I got a documented request from someone asking to be on my e-mail list.

Suddenly, my wonderful new marketing strategy had turned into a logistics nightmare and my list of 4,000 e-mails was now down to only 600 people I could contact. How did this happen? What did I do wrong? How could this have been avoided?

After another week of research I had the answers to these questions. Had I known these things before I got started, I could have avoided a lot of trouble and would not be facing the prospect of contacting thousands of people to ask their permission to send them e-mail.

As a dealer, you can learn a lot from my mistakes. E-mail Marketing is a wonderful new tool that will help you stay in front of your potential customers. But as I proved, a false start carries serious consequences. In order to help you avoid these mistakes, I have outlined all the things I wish I had known before I got started.

The SPAM Law vs. The "Terms of Service"

While the penalties for violating the CAN-SPAM Act are drastic ($16,000 fine per violation) the law is actually very lenient and easy to follow (unless you really are a spammer). The "Terms of Service" that you must agree to with an E-mail Marketing firm are much more strict and harder to comply with than the Spam laws.

To comply with the SPAM laws, you only have to do a few simple things:

1. Don't lie – don't have misleading subjects or links that go somewhere other than where they say they will go. If you are selling something, make it clear you are selling something. If you have a link that says click here for a listing of inventory and it takes you to a website selling Viagra, you will be in trouble.
2. Make it easy for someone to take themselves off your list. While a This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is not very sophisticated, it will keep you in compliance with the law.
3. If someone asks to be taken off your list, take them off your list.

The actual law is more complicated than this (after all, it came from our Congress), but following these three basic rules will pretty much keep you safe.

The "Terms of Service" of your e-mail marketing company are much more stringent and will add rules like these:

1. Only send to people who requested to receive your e-mail.
2. Do not send out bulk e-mails inviting people to join your list. Send these types of e-mails individually.
3. Keep written or electronic documentation of requests to join your list. You may need to prove someone said they wanted to receive e-mail from you.
4. Do not send e-mail to lists of people you have acquired at trade shows, from associations, from other business partners or by purchasing ad list.
5. Do not send to e-mail addresses you have had for more than two years unless you first confirm they want to receive the material you are sending.
6. Invite people to opt-out of your list every time you send them an e-mail.

Failure to follow these additional rules will get you in trouble quickly, as I learned. My biggest problem was sending to e-mail addresses that I had for more than a couple of years. That was a big no-no.

In addition to these rules, the e-mail marketing companies have other measurements they use to keep an eye on your account, and you need to be within these guidelines or you can be shut down:

1. At least 20% of the people who receive your e-mail should open it.
2. No more than 5% of your e-mails can come back as undeliverable.
3. No more than 1 in 1,000 recipients can complain about having received your e-mail.

These last guidelines were shocking to me. First of all, no matter how pertinent my e-mail message is, I am communicating with busy people who have businesses to run. I would love to think that one in five people would read my e-mail, but that just doesn't seem realistic.

The "No more than 5% undeliverable rule" makes sense in context of the rule about not sending to older e-mail addresses. But the first time you send a big e-mail, there are going to be some bad addresses that slip in: people move and change services all the time; retail customers may give you a phony address and simple typo's will make an e-mail undeliverable.

Remember how I thought seven people reporting my e-mail as spam was tiny compared to the 4,000 e-mails I sent? That was twice the acceptable rate and is what triggered the immediate suspension of my account. Amazingly, two of the people that reported me were people I knew well and when I asked them about it, they said they had done it as a mistake. But that doesn't matter to the e-mail marketing companies.

Once you realize how easy it is for someone to report you as spam, it becomes clear that this is a very tricky business. Your e-mail does not have to be spam for you to be reported. All that has to happen is for someone to click a button on their e-mail browser. Your customers can do this for any number of reasons, none of which are under your control. If a competitor gets on your e-mail list, they can report you just to make life hard on you. (I had one of these, too).

Why are these e-mail marketing companies so strict?

The e-mail marketing companies are certainly concerned about the CAN-SPAM law and don't want to be associated with anyone who would break that law. They could be penalized just like the company that breaks the law.

However, there is something of even greater concern to these companies and that is the prospect of being "blacklisted" or blocked by Internet Service Providers (ISP's). ISP's (as opposed to the Government or the consumers) are the ones who are really calling the shots.

SPAM is a nuisance for most of us, but large volumes of unsolicited e-mail actually cost ISP's money because they have to transmit and store all of that data. All of that junk e-mail or Spam slows down their servers and decreases the performance of their networks. That, of course, can cost them customers.

ISPs are notorious for blocking out e-mail from entire companies or servers if they think it might be SPAM. If enough of their customers complain about e-mail from say This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it they will block all traffic from "joesribs.com" and possibly from the company that Joe uses to send his e-mail.

E-mail marketing companies need to have a good relationship with these ISPs because, if any significant number of ISP's block or blacklist their e-mail, they will quickly be out of business.

That is why your e-mail marketing company is going to be so strict. They cannot afford to have any bad apples in their basket. In my e-mail I had 7 SPAM reports. If everyone that sent e-mails through that company that day had 7 reports, it could easily be 7,000 reports. That is going to make the ISPs look at the company and say, "Why are you sending SPAM?"

The same is true with my bounce rate. I had 500 e-mails that didn't go through because they were bad addresses. But if everyone had that many, it would be 500,000 and again, the ISPs would not be happy.

What's a dealer to do?

Obviously you don't want to be known as a spammer. Unless you are trying to use your customer list to sell Viagra on line, you will probably never be accused of being a spammer.

You do, however; want to be able to take advantage of e-mail marketing. It is the least expensive, least time consuming and most effective way of staying in touch with large numbers of people. So, how do you take advantage of this technology without stepping over the line and getting shut down by your e-mail marketing company or ISP?

Here are the practical steps I wish I had known BEFORE I sent my first big e-mail.

1. Separate your customer database into the following categories:
1. People I am actively doing business with
2. People I have recently (1 year) done business with
3. People who have done business with me in the past
4. People who I think would be interested in what I have to say.

2. Review your lists very carefully according to the following criteria
1. For lists "a" and "b", make sure there is no one on the list who might be unhappy or angry with you. A couple upset customers clicking on a "this is Spam" button can really ruin your marketing plans.
2. For lists "c" and "d", ask yourself these two questions: "Will this person recognize who I am?" and "Will they be happy to hear from me?"
3. If you cannot answer yes to both of these questions, leave that address off your initial e-mail list.

3. Do not send bulk e-mails to lists you purchased or traded or acquired at a trade show. Put these people in your database and follow steps 5 and 6 below.

4. Immediately put a registration form in your sales office, service department and on your website asking people to sign up for your e-mail list. If they sign up, you can safely assume you can put them on your list. However, it is best to keep this documentation because, if they later report you as a spammer, you are going to need to show this documentation to your e-mail marketing firm.

5. For those people in your database who did not make your initial cut (see recommendations 1 and 2 directly above), you can still ask them to "opt in" to your e-mail list, but you will have to do this outside of your e-mail marketing company. You can, for example, send them an e-mail through your regular e-mail system (Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) asking if they would like to join your e-mail list. Your e-mail marketing firm will have links you can place in these e-mails that will take people to a registration page where they can sign up for your list.

   This e-mail could read something like, "I am starting a new e-mail list to keep our friends and customers updated with our latest special offers. Would you like to join?"

6. Include an "opt-in" link below the signature line of each e-mail you send to a prospect, supplier, customer, etc. When you send these through your regular e-mail system, your prospects will then have the opportunity to sign up for your e-mail marketing list.

7. Add a "Join my E-mail List" link to your web-site. This way, visitors to your website can sign up any time they wish. Your e-mail marketing company can provide you with this link and they will keep records of everyone who has opted in so, if there is ever a dispute later, you are covered.

8. Make sure your e-mail marketing materials are relevant and valuable to your customers. You are going to need to have more than pretty pictures; you must have good content or your recipients will stop opening them. I have several newsletters I signed up for that I never open anymore because they are boring. This will negatively impact the people that send them to me because the e-mail marketing firms are looking at how many people open the e-mails.

Please learn from my mistakes.

One of the best things you can do in business is learn from other people's mistakes rather than make them yourself. It is far less expensive to pay attention to where someone else went wrong than to repeat these errors.

My first foray into the e-mail marketing world seemed wildly successful, but there are 3,000 people now who I can't e-mail until I do a lot of troublesome and time-consuming work. I know some of these people will want to hear what I have to say, but because I didn't have anyone to show me the ropes, I now have to go about this the hard way.

If you would like some help or if you are not sure what to do, talk to your e-mail marketing company and get their advice before you send your first big e-mail.

If you would like help putting together your strategy, I am currently working with my clients to apply the lessons I learned to new e-mail marketing campaigns and would be happy to discuss how I might be able to help you.

By the way, please consider joining my e-mail list to receive information on our free on-line training seminars, our newsletter and other important information. You can join this list by clicking the following link:

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?m=1102946334645&p=oi

Thank You! ##

Rainmaker Software is a privately-held Retail Management Software and Consulting company that services the Trailer, RV and Housing markets. Chad Carr is the president of Rainmaker Software and is the second generation running this family-owned business.
Rainmaker works with retail businesses ranging in size from five to six people up to some of the biggest and most well-recognized names in the industry. For more informatio about their services, visit their web-site at www.getRain.com or contact Chad at (800) 336-0339 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .