When talking about any mass mailing advertising action, it is quite common to think directly about spam or intrusive messages, especially when thinking about sending mass mailing campaigns to an email list.
The problem is that many brands don’t use this type of strategy correctly, creating invasive and repetitive email marketing campaigns, damaging the image of any marketing strategy as a digital communication strategy.
“Luckily, there are still many companies working hard their online reputation, doing what they can to create a commercially appropriate strategy, so they can offer the best possible solutions to their customers.”
Typically, one of the most used formats in email marketing to share content with subscribed users is the newsletter, since the primary purpose of this message is, precisely, to inform (and not so much to send advertising).
However, and even though the newsletter is one of my favorite communication channels to connect with subscribers, for this new article, I would like to focus on another alternative that could generate some controversy; Advertising by email or mass mailing.
The reason for its controversy is based on the simple idea of the contribution of informational content to focus on purely commercial emails, with the aim of selling more at all costs.
I know that this alternative may not be ethical at first sight, compared to other digital marketing strategies, so I would ask that you read this post to understand what I’m talking about, because today we are going to see things from another perspective.
Specifically, I propose to respond to the following reflections:
- What are the advantages and why should you consider sending mass mailing as a marketing strategy?
- Sending advertising and sending mass mailing would be the same thing?
- What actions are recommended to send advertising by email?
- What should NOT be done in this type of campaign?
Advantages and objectives of email advertising
As you know, your subscribers can read your emails from any mobile device. This makes life easier for users, who can decide when and where they will check your messages. Thanks to that, email marketing is considered a non-invasive medium.
From this point, and considering the characteristics of the email as a super powerful communication channel, we can determine the specific advantages to sending advertising by email that, while focused on informing about a product or service, must be received by people interested in what you are offering.
Of course, it also has drawbacks to other email marketing strategies, such as lack of targeting and more specific information about what the subscriber will want to receive.
►What are the benefits of sending advertising by email?
This email marketing alternative offers some advantages which you probably could not find so easily if what you send regularly are sales newsletters.
Think of email advertising as a concrete way to explore and take advantage of e-mail as a communication channel, and this channel offers many benefits to creating a marketing strategy:
- Low cost: as with any email strategy, sending advertising by email requires a meager investment that soon will present a high profitability.
- Vast audience: By launching your promotions by mass mailing, you are contacting a broad audience who, at some point, demonstrated interest in your company or its products or services.
- Posterior targeting: although segmentation is not the most important in most of these campaigns, because of the peculiarities of email advertising actions, you can send complimentary product promotions to those who have already bought something from your company or new releases for customers(for example).
- Reinforce the brand image: similar to what happens with informational newsletters, users will be able to receive information about all your products and services. Thanks to this, these users will perceive your company as a current and robust brand, and this is fundamental for customers to understand that you are interested in offering products or services to improve their lives.
- Short-term goals: Email marketing campaigns focused on content creation are used as a long-term strategy, through the establishment of loyal relationships with users. Mass mailing campaigns, in turn, are created with short-term goals. They are designed to increase sales in a short time, to increase the number of leads, etc.
►Why should you send mass mailing campaigns?
The fact that you focus on the short term (and not so much on the long-term), will help you to create goal-oriented campaigns.
Consider sending mass mailing from time to time, especially for…
- …to increase sales: Email advertising is a strategy that focuses on the promotion of products or services that meet the needs of the target audience. So what you are looking for is to increase your sales in a short period.
- …to improve the visibility of a product: some of the products you sell may not be well-known, or they may not be the primary product available on your eCommerce or physical store. This type of promotion will help users to know these products better, and some of them may remember that you sell these products when they are looking for something similar.
- …and to turn followers into customers by offering them a product or service directly and concretely, you could manage to convince many subscribers to become customers, by explaining the advantages of that product.
- …to increase traffic to your website: Users interested in your products can visit your site for more information. These visitors will also help to improve your traffic, which will be vital to your SEO strategy.
- …for statistical data: they are highly measurable campaigns, so you can know to what extent your content is generating sales. With this information, you could adjust your advertising campaigns, once you know the aspects that need to be improved.
As you can see, the main difference between this and other email marketing strategies are in the goals of the campaigns.
“Mass mailing is a more focused strategy to increase sales. Targeted email marketing campaigns with useful contents are recommended for creating a relationship of trust and loyalty with subscribers, improving the corporate image of the brand.”
Promotional mass mailing and email advertising: are they the same?
Although there seems to be no difference between these concepts, they can be considered different strategies. Technically, a promotional mass mailing would always be viewed as advertising, but you could use advertising for other email campaigns, without trying to generate sales.
“A promotional mass mailing refers to the sending of an offer or discount for a service or product, sales information, new versions, etc.”
“Email advertising can focus on other parts of your marketing strategy and could be used to improve the brand image, etc.”
Therefore, advertising is broader, and promotion focuses on a specific aspect, promoting a product or service and these emails always will be sent with this sole purpose.
Both concepts refer to what we call email marketing, although each has its nuances.
To better understand these two concepts, we will see their similarities and differences in a concise and clear way, what do you think?
►What are the similarities between mass mailing and advertising campaigns?
As I said, there are many points in common between these two terms, so it is easy to confuse them since the line separating them is very tenuous.
Let’s look at the similarities between the two strategies:
- Both require, as well as any other email marketing action, a low economic investment.
- Both serve a broad spectrum of users.
- Both help improve brand reputation.
- Both could create engagement with users.
►What are the differences between advertising and mass mailing?
However, although their similarities are on the fact that you could use both options for direct communication via email (mass mailing or not), they could be differentiated in some specific aspects:
- Concrete vs. abstraction: A mass mailing campaign is sent to deliver a concrete offering, while advertising campaigns are used for sending messages about the brand in general, not just to offer products or services.
- Concrete Vs. Timeless campaigns: A mass mailing campaign is used to send a message for a relevant campaign, while advertising can be used for words that could be re-sent at any other time without problems.
- Scheduling: Most of the companies will send these campaigns on important dates, (Christmas, Easter, Black Friday, etc.), while advertising campaigns could be created for other important strategies, not directly related to sales.
I hope that after analyzing the similarities and differences between promotional and advertising campaigns, you can quickly identify the ideal option for your next email marketing campaign.
Effective Email Advertising Actions
Within the objectives we have seen before, there are specific actions that you can accomplish. Depending on the situation of your brand and the goals of your strategy, you could use one or the other option.
“To create an email campaign, you need to understand what your goals are before you create the campaign.”
Let’s look at three examples of email advertising:
►1) Content diffusion
Email advertising could be a tool for viralizing an advertising campaign. For example, an ad on television that has a different online version or a video on Youtube.
You could also send additional information that would complement the rest of the campaign users could see in marquees, jingles on the radio or read in magazines.
If you can develop high-quality content, your followers could feel more inclined to share it on their social networks. Take advantage of this potential by creating an email with elements that will motivate the reader to share your message. Don’t forget to include calls to action!
► 2) Sending press releases
Email advertising can also help you spread your news through press releases. For example, before an event in which you will invite specific leading figures in the industry.
It is also useful when you have to solve a crisis and the press release can be used to clarify the misunderstanding or the problem in question.
If you know those journalists who may have an interest in your work, sending press releases with an attractive message to them is a great idea.
But it can also be used to send a notification to all your subscribers. This will depend on the reason for the press release that you want to send.
►3) Launch of a redesign
If you change your corporate image and bet on a new design and graphic identity, email advertising campaigns could help you to make the new look of your company known quickly.
You will reach all users by showing the “new face” of your brand and logo, so that everyone will be accustomed and can recognize the new image.
Mistakes to Avoid when planning Email Advertising campaigns
As with any marketing strategy, you must take into account a few factors in creating your campaign, not just because doing things the wrong way can have negative consequences, but because once you have sent the message, it would be impossible to correct any problem in its content.
Since these are emails sent to a broad audience, if you are not careful about the campaigns, your messages may end up in the spam folder.
Keep in mind that users may consider your emails unnecessary and you will have the opposite effect that you are seeking, so be careful and:
- Review the message several times: You must read and reread the email you are going to send, to avoid possible problems in its contents. You should also check all the information you have included, such as buttons, calls to action, and any other element with which the subscribers can interact. This type of problem could be fatal to the outcome of your campaigns.
- Don’t use too many images: The excessive use of images could be a problem, as the email could be considered as Spam by various email clients. Of course, pictures are essential for mass mailing campaigns, but you should always be careful not to overuse them.
- Don’t forget to personalize your messages: it’s not about customization Regarding targeting (I suppose the emails you want to send are intended for an audience that is interested in your product), but there are also hundreds of plugins for customizing emails with the name of the recipient or other information. Customization is vital, so that your users feel essential, which will be positive for your marketing actions.
Conclusion
Many companies use mass mailing campaigns as part of their strategy with very positive results. When well planned, this type of action can bring many benefits to your company as well. In my opinion, you should be careful when using these actions, but it can work very well as part of a general strategy.
Creating campaigns of different types, you will get short and long-term results at the same time, expanding the possibilities of sales, keeping your community faithful to your content.
That’s why in this article, we try to show the other side of the email marketing, which is not considered popularly accepted due to its intrusiveness and misunderstood advertising practices.
What do you think about using email as a way to send mass mailing campaigns? Do you know any interesting action for that type of campaign?