Emarketing is a cost-effective way of reaching your marketplace. It is by far the cheapest option for a targeted campaign, but before you hit send on your email campaign, here is a quick guide:
Know the Legal Basics
The law permits you to send emails to business email addresses on business matters. But your email must have an 'unsubscribe' mechanism. This can be a link to an unsubscribe page or one line saying something like 'to unsubscribe, reply to this email with the word 'Remove' in the subject heading'. If you receive an unsubscribe notification you are not permitted to email that person again.
GDPR dictates that your email must also have a link to your corporate privacy policy and your legitimate interests assessment. We have a guide to b2b email marketing on the basis of legitimate interests.
Email lists can be used with email broadcasting software.
Refunds on Hard Bounces
Most email list providers will offer a refund for a 'hard bounce' ie an incorrect email address. This will not apply if your email has been rejected as spam, so do make sure that the content of your email is filter friendly. Emails should not contain trigger words such as 'Money Off', 'Save £££' or too many exclamation marks!!! See our guide How to get your email delivered to your target's inbox
Email Deliverability - What is Normal?
19th century entrepreneur John Wanamaker, once famously said that one half of his advertising was wasted, the trouble was he didn't know which half. Emarketers know exactly which emails were wasted as every campaign will generate 'sorry this inbox is full' messages and 'cannot deliver' notices. This is normal. Do not be upset if up to 10% of your emails fail to arrive. Your email may be picked up as spam, the server may be programmed to reject emails from your server, the target's server may be down, the person's inbox may be full or any number of technical issues could have affected the arrival of your email. We suggest that you read the message which returned the email and if it was a 'soft bounce' ie a server problem, send it again a few days later.
See our guide How to get your email delivered to your target's inbox Remember that if you receive an 'out of office' reply, your email did arrive, but your target has not seen it yet.
Compliance with the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulation
In the UK, you can now only buy in email lists of people at their place of work. We advise that you check that the email addresses are named so that you know where the email is going. But if you are buying a list of small companies and micro-businesses, it is sensible to accept all-access emails such info@ or sales@.
Check that you are not buying any self-generated emails ie email addresses given out freely to consumers such as Outlook or gmail addresses, as they tend to be home email addresses. If you send a marketing email to a home email address, you are at risk of being reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
You are allowed to send emails offering business services to business people at their business email addresses, but if they ask you to stop emailing them, then you must remove them from your list and must not email them again. This is central part of the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulation (EU Directive) 2003 which governs email marketing.
When you buy an email marketing list, check with the provider that every contact has been informed (usually by email) that they are included on the mailing lists to comply with GDPR's right to be informed. Use of these email addresses complies with the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulation (EU Directive) 2003 which governs email marketing.