Taking old school direct marketing tactics and applying them without alteration to email is a popular practice that is doomed to fail.  Applying the old school tactics without considering the change in media will lead to a never ending cycle of “successful” email-marketing newsletters that fail to convert as effectively as they should.

I wrote recently about the many “new media marketing” mistakes a former “sales training guru” I once admired is making as he tries to transition from “old school” to “new school” selling strategies. I shared how signing up for his newsletter has resulted in a never-ending onslaught of product pitches. Since his marketing techniques are sound, I haven’t unsubscribed. Instead, I have chosen to “learn” from him these days based upon what he does – or doesn’t do –  instead of purchasing the products he’s selling.

Recently, one of his emails caught my eye and I opened it.  This action immediately makes that particular message a success.  This message continued to rack up “wins” as I read the message and then clicked on the link to learn more.

EMAIL MARKETING SUCCESS ACHIEVED!

While this message chalked up several wins – making it a technical success – it didn’t win on the most important point which was making the sale.

How can an email-marketing newsletter be a success but not result in a sale?

There are many reasons that a successful email-marketing newsletter message might not “connect” and make a sale. In this case, it was the lack of understanding about how the “prospect” is connecting with the message.

If this particular marketing message had been delivered “old school style” – via direct mail marketing – I probably would have purchased the product.  However, this message wasn’t delivered “snail mail” – it was delivered via email and that changes everything.

NEW MEDIA DISCONNECTS

There are two serious disconnects which have taken this campaign which I’m sure was a “winner” in the direct mail game and turned it into a “loser” in the email marketing game.

DISCONNECT #1: Lack of Responsive Design

I opened this message on my “smart” phone and I’m not alone. According to eMailMonday,

Mobile email will account for 15 to 65% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product and email type. eMailmonday – “Party safe mobile email stats” (2013)

When someone clicks on an email message on their smart phone, it’s critical that the landing page is created with mobile in mind.

In this marketer’s case, my successful email newsletter “click”  landed me on a page which was a mobile nightmare design wise.

GOOD NEWS: Many, many WordPress themes are now mobile responsive – so if you’ve been creating content in WordPress, redressing your content in a mobile friendly design is as easy as installing and applying a new theme.

Consumers expect your pages to display properly in their smart phones.  You can’t expect to sell anything to someone who is playing “let’s try to read the content” on their mobile phone.

Mobile responsive design is now a “must have” not a “nice to have” feature if you expect your website to “sell”.  You can’t expect consumers to run home and sit down at their desk top computer in order to purchase your product or services.

 

DISCONNECT #2: Price Insensitivity

Like other consumers, I have been “conditioned” to find the best value using the tools at my fingertips – the web.  When I saw the $197 price point on the product offered, rather than click to purchase – my first instinct was to check to see if I could find the product at a lower price.  I quickly discovered the “info-product” offered is actually an audio book – offered for as little as $30 on eBay – and for $44 on Amazon.  I also learned that  the audio-book doesn’t live up to the hype – thanks to the many reviews left by others who have previously purchased this product.

The web has brought price comparison shopping to a whole new level.  On the web:

Price Comparisons Are the Rule Instead of the Exception

Don’t insult your valuable email newsletter subscribers by inflating the price of products you offer them.  Instead, you should offer them discounts that can’t be found ANYWHERE else on the web.

Even though this message only had two New Media Disconnects, finding the product at a fraction of the price – with poor reviews to boot – put an end to my pursuit of the knowledge contained within.

Essential Takeaway: Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools available to your business.  However, it’s only powerful if used correctly.  Share your thoughts below.

“Nothing happens until somebody sells something”

Like many newly minted college graduates, when I crossed the finish line and collected my BS degree (pun definitely intended) with dual majors in Marketing and Economics, I quickly discovered that my degree was not what I thought it was.  I thought it was the key to success and instead it was merely an indicator future employers that I was willing to follow a prescribed path to complete a process. The fact that I had completed my degree in 3 years instead of four while spending a trimester in Japan failed to impress any of the HR people with whom I interviewed.

With no job experience other than retail mall clerk during high school, I found myself applying for “marketing” jobs. I quickly learned that “marketing” is HR code for “commissioned sales positions.” Eventually I landed a position with a regional advertising agency only to discover that “account executive” is just another term for “commissioned sales person.”

SELLING is an essential part of doing business.

My mentor was a wise woman who quickly introduced me to the wonderful world of “self-growth” as well as “sales training.” She began feeding me a constant stream of products from top name motivational and sales gurus. In those days, their words of wisdom were carrying via cassette tapes instead of podcasts. More than one of those loaned tapes literally disintegrated in my cassette deck from my ravenous consumption of the material.

Not long ago, I ran across a blog maintained by one of those gurus. It didn’t take any kind of “bribe” to get me to sign up for his email newsletter – because this man already possessed “demi-god” status within my mind.

After I signed up, I was HORRIFIED to see that the “legal bribe” offered by my sales hero had a GLARING TYPO in the first paragraph. (Thanks Mike for pointing out my glaring typo in the first paragraph of this post.)

This person had a huge balance in his trust account with me – so I hoped that this was just an oversight on the part of his staff.  Ever sinceI shared my email address with him, my inbox has been inundated with a never-ending stream of “hard closing” sales messages. Once I made a mistake of actually trying to watch one of his videos – and it was like watching paint dry. Meanwhile his blog posts seemed to be devoted to chasing keywords instead of sharing information.

Unfortunately, this man’s lack of understanding of the “modern sales process” has resulted in his credibility dropping to less than zero with me.  This is a direct result of watching him function in the “new world” of social media.

The new world of social media can seem bewildering to someone who has decades of experience in one-way communication.  I can see where it would be especially frightening for someone who hasn’t been along for the ride – for those who ignored the web until the 2nd decade of this century.

However, in the words of one of my clients – sometimes you can get so far behind that you’re actually ahead and that is definitely the case when it comes to social media and sales.