Is Your Small Business Email Marketing a Trick or Treat?

Some tactics used for small business email marketing definitely fall into the category of ‘trick’ rather than ‘treat.’ While you, the email sender, might think that these tactics are a good way to get ahead of the competition or get more leads, the fact is that you’re really just playing a trick on your email recipients. And believe me, with the amount of people playing tricks through email marketing, you can believe that email recipients are keen to pick up on something that feels like a scam.

In the spirit of Halloween’s trick or treat, we all know that treat is the overwhelmingly opted for approach taken by people visiting strangers houses in search of handouts. Don’t you think that approach wins you a more favorable outcome than a ‘trick’ might? This Halloween, I wanted to share a few scenarios in ways people currently pull tricks and show you how to turn that trick into a very nice treat.

Referral Email Campaigns

The Trick: When reaching out to current or past clients/customers for referrals, it’s definitely not meant to be a trick for them, but the way you present yourself can leave people feeling scammed instead. Think about it, these people are willingly forking over their contact information to their friends and family. If you give them nothing in return for their assistance or worse, turn around and harass those referrals (their friends), then you’ve sincerely broken that trust with them.

The Treat: This is not to say that you should stop asking your clients/customers for referrals, but do so with finesse. Turn this request into something of value for your email recipients. Maybe you offer up a $20 gift card for every referral that books an appointment with you or better yet, run a contest. Give away something of value like an iPad Air or Amazon gift card and for every referral sent to you, that person gets entered into the drawing. That’s a pretty great treat if you ask me!

Follow Me On Social

 The Trick: Most tricksters out there will spam you with email, letting you know that they’re on social media accounts X, Y, and Z, begging you to go to those pages and click like, follow, +1, or subscribe. Now, done with the best of intentions, this form of email to social crossover can work out quite well, but from the blaring requests of bad email campaigns, you can most clearly see it’s simply a numbers game to them. The trick? The one thing I dislike more than “like my page” requests is getting to those pages only to find that there’s no content, updates, or anything worth my time. Trick is on me.

The Treat: Like I said before, there’s nothing wrong trying to get your email audience to join you on social networks, but there has to be a treat to entice me in that direction. Maybe it’s a Facebook caption contest to get me there, or possibly the promise of interesting DIY projects ever weekend. Something that gives me some entertainment value will help you grow your social presence and also keep me engaged. Treat your audience right! (I know, bad pun)

Newsletter Signups

The Trick: Getting someone to sign up for your email newsletter might be a trick to accomplish, but it’s very bad if what they’ve signed up for is also a bad trick. What I mean is that by signing up for someones email newsletter , I expect that you won’t email me to the point of me auto-deleting content, that you won’t send me nonsense and continual sales pitches, and that it won’t all be about you. That is a trick that will earn you an unsubscribe from me.

The Treat: When I give up my email address to a company or person, I expect to be treated to quality email marketing content, full of well-written, entertaining information. These little treats in my inbox keep my interest, make me like you more, and help keep you top of mind as well.

So take some time this Halloween 2013 and look at what you’re emailing your clients and customers. Are you in the spirit of email marketing and providing people with the right content treats? Or have you slipped toward the dark side, only sending out tricks to your email recipients? Regardless, we wish you all a Happy Halloween 2013!