Does Legitimate Email Marketing Work?

from the it-appears-to...-for-some dept

I've gotten to the point where I'm sick of just about any email marketing - even if I've signed up for it. It very rarely is personalized or has anything that is of any interest to me. In fact, I'd say most lists I'm on have turned into "legitimate spam" that I simply delete without reading. However, it's apparently working for some people, as this article talks about some companies that are discovering how well legitimate email marketing works. While I certainly see how it can work in some cases, I think it's dealing with too much clutter from the spam around it to really make a dent. If email marketing was truely personalized, and didn't show up so often, it might make a lot more sense. The only company I've seen that has actually done that well (so far) is Amazon.com. They send me emails very rarely - and when they do, they're usually relevant.
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  • identicon
    Chris, 29 May 2002 @ 5:35am

    No Subject Given

    I have an example of email marketing that works. I have bought probably a dozen CD's from Village Records (http://villagerecords.com), in Manhattan, KS. I've never been to to the store, and haven't even been to Kansas in the last 10 years. They send out a email once per month with reviews of 30+ new albums, most from artists I've never heard of. At least a couple of the reviews each month grab my attention and lead me to a search for MP3's to check out the music - which has lead to me buying the CD and discovering an artist I would have not otherwise heard of. Multiple my experience by a few thousand? subscribers to the email and you have a rather profitable venture that is very beneficial for all involved. The key, IMO, is that they are providing something of real value - the reviews - and not just screaming BUY THIS, BUY THIS in red flashing text!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lee, 29 May 2002 @ 10:02am

    It works with me, sometimes

    Regular readers here know, I am an antispam zealot. However, I do respond favorably to email marketing from businesses where I have opted-in. If I am interested in buying someone's books, don't try and sell me travel plans, if I want that I will opt-in to a travel agency.

    Tip - Opt-in using a throwaway email address, hotmail, or something and use a fake name. If you don't get junk mail to that address and fake name, then you can probably assume that the business has a good privacy policy and you can then you can change your address to a regular POP account if you want.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    LittleW0lf, 29 May 2002 @ 4:02pm

    Amazon and Legitimate Email Marketing

    I apparently have done something wrong, because Amazon seems to send me email weekly and sometimes daily, and very little of it is relative. I keep getting "for someone who has purchased in the past, check out these deals ...". It's gotten so bad in some cases that I've had to go in and set up a filter on my mail server to delete any "for someone" messages coming from Amazon, while allowing their normal monthly newsletter in. I've looked around Amazon's site in the past to find a way to tell them to stop sending these "for someone" messages without stopping the newsletter, but haven't found it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      NoSpamMan, 29 May 2002 @ 11:56pm

      Re: Amazon and Legitimate Email Marketing

      Amazon send me regular "newsletters" which have never yet had anything of interest to me in them - mostly stupid ads for whatever the latest hot item is. very annoying in fact.

      However, I do get mail from some specialist music companies that are informative, infrequent and useful.

      L.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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