Get
Real!
Look at the real numbers behind BCC and free services
by
Doug Hayworth, Director of Sales and Marketing, Netspace
of Greater Kansas City
What
a dilemma. Managing your own e-mail campaign and using the BCC method is often
time consuming because most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) limit how many
e-mails a subscriber can send at a particular time. In fact, there was one such
instance of a business running its own campaign through an AOL account where
the limit is 50 (or less) e-mail addresses per e-mail. At last count, this business
owner was sending in excess of 4,500 e-mails per send. If my math is correct,
the same e-mail had to be pointed to 90 separate groups, of 50 e-mail addresses,
in order to get out the door.
Another
pitfall with this approach is that it becomes even more cumbersome when it comes
time to track campaign statistics and unsubscribe requests. These tasks will
have to be handled manually. In inquiring how much time does it take to compose,
send, and track statistics in this process, the answer was 2-3 hours. Later
it was learned that another 1-2 hours was expended on list management. And still
plastic bags containing customer contact information (from previous in-store
give-aways) were sitting next to his desk. It appears this business owner has
all of the tools (a plan, a process, the technical components, and the know-how)
in place for a successful e-mail campaign. But, one has to wonder how much business
is being missed from not having the e-mail address database up-to-date.
With
the upcoming holiday season, the impact of lost revenue could be in the thousands
of dollars. Ouch! With respect to free services, proceed with caution. Often
times, there free now and in a few short months, or after prepaying for a year,
they are gone. What then? Hopefully, you will still have access to your e-mail
list (or a backup) and will be able to transfer the current database back in-house
or to another provider of e-mail services.
A
second problem with this option is unless the business owner feels very comfortable
with the e-mail platform (system); support will be needed at some point. Often
times, “free, low priced offers” can be translated to mean no service or support
will be provided. In some cases, industry experts provide newsletters worthy
articles and are glad to share them to a broader audience for the asking. While
this helps to gather content, it doesn’t help the e-newsletter to get out the
door. Because of these industry expert’s articles, e-mail newsletter consultants
are able to create a newsletter, rich with current industry content and trends,
in a short time-frame and usually for less than the cost of other forms of advertising
and marketing.
A
couple of important factors, in deciding which avenue to pursue in this case,
is the size of the email database and the time that can be allocated to composing
it. If you aren’t dealing with thousands of addresses and are technically literate,
the previously discussed AOL method would be sufficient. For a database 1,000,
more database management capabilities is recommended. The time saving alone
will pay for any additional costs associated with out-sourcing this function.
No matter which avenue is selected, sending newsletters, with current industry
trends, consistently is the key to a successful e-mail campaign.
