Brand damage ALERT! Don’t overload your subscribers
Every time I download information from a website, I am deluged with emails.
While some of them are relevant and interesting, others are not, diluting the overall effect. One digital guide I downloaded seemed to subscribe me to multiple marketing lists, and before I knew it, I was receiving daily emails from them. They were all automated, and 9/10 were entirely irrelevant. Then one day, they sent me an email to tell me that while they usually send me a weekly email, they had such a great idea that they had to notify me straight away!
You’ve probably guessed it, but I unsubscribed immediately. However, due to the multiple lists setup, I still receive other emails from them. I had no choice but to go to the extreme and block them and send them all straight to junk.
I’m sure that many of you can relate to this story as it’s probably happened to you at one time or another.
There is a serious lesson to be learned here by marketers. While we develop marketing strategies with the best of intentions, we must be careful not to dilute the overall effect by being so opportunistic about the level of authority a prospect has provided us just by subscribing to one of our communications.
When we bombard our prospects with too much irrelevant content, it takes away from the value of the content that would otherwise be meaningful to them. And it will only lead to frustration that will ultimately lead to brand damage. While digital marketing can be a blessing, it can also be a curse. Let’s take a look at those techniques that are hurting our brand more than they are helping. Which should we leave behind when marketing our professional services?
Quantity vs. quality
Let’s start with the obvious. You may think that the best way to stay relevant is to constantly remind your clients you exist. But this strategy has proven to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. Instead of clients having a positive brand image of you, they’ll remember you as the firm that filled up their inboxes to no end with nonsense. If you want to be truly memorable, focus on quality content that addresses their pain points and has purpose.
Drip marketing that lacks personalisation
The reason why I started sending emails straight to junk was because they were completely pointless to my needs as a client. And this is exactly what happens with drip campaigns that are set up to be pre-written messages to prospects over a long period of time. While the whole point is to nurture leads through the marketing funnel, they can actually alienate them because they’re typically not personalised, leaving no impact on them on an individual level. The recipient of the email will not feel the content applies to them and will simply chuck it in the bin.
This can be avoided by placing clients on the right list from the start and taking the time to craft content that is personalised for their specific demographic.
Email marketing and automation
There’s a technical reason why marketing automation emails get read less and it’s because the receiving inboxes can detect that they didn’t come from a real person. And if the person you’re sending to has their inbox set up to segregate primary emails from the others, then your automated emails are ending up under the Promotions tab, where it may never be opened.
We get that automation makes the lives of marketers better. However, rely on it too much and overload your clients with automated emails, and you’ll likely end up turning them off to the point that they’d rather not receive any emails from you at all, automated or otherwise.