Should Internet Marketers Keep Pounding Us With Offers?
By Anna Johnson on September 2nd, 2010So you sign up to an Internet marketer’s email list… perhaps on the promise of a free video, report or email course… or maybe because you bought something from them… and lo-and-behold they start emailing you marketing offer after marketing offer. Emails asking you to buy this and buy that. Sent to you every few days. Maybe even once or a few times in ONE day.
So, is sending all these email offers to you perfectly okay… or have they crossed some kind of line?
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Well, let’s first recognize that we’re all marketers here. We’re in the business of promoting offers and, as such, we should EXPECT to receive offers from other Internet marketers. At the same time, if we sign up to a list expecting to get one thing (e.g. news or education)… and instead we get something else (nothing more than ads)… then we don’t have to be happy about it.
In that case, we can vote with our mouse by unsubscribing. If enough people unsubscribe then the marketer will get the message that they aren’t providing their list with the information people signed up for. If we don’t unsubscribe and keep on whinging about it, then more fool us.
But having said all that, is it right for Internet marketers to keep on pounding their email lists with offers?
The answer is: yes, of course it is.
Internet marketers are business people – they’re the quintessential business and marketing people – and they make their money by promoting and selling products and services. What’s more, smart Internet marketers will do whatever it takes to get more people to buy more, more often. If that means sending out a promotional offer once or a few times per day, then that’s what they’ll do. It just makes business sense.
Again, is anyone really surprised about marketers who market?
Now, that doesn’t mean that whatever a given Internet marketer is promoting is right for you. And as much as they frame an offer in terms of ‘you must get this’ the reality is that only YOU can decide what you need.
I mean, supermarkets will advertise various products – from dog food to bananas – but that doesn’t mean you should buy either product. After all, you may not have a dog and you may not like bananas.
So just as we don’t expect supermarkets to stop promoting products that don’t suit us, we shouldn’t expect Internet marketers to stop promoting all the various products they promote that may not be right for us.
Now, there is an exception to this. Some marketers will put CUSTOMERS on a special list and make sure not to send those customers offers for the product or service they’ve already bought. That’s a really good idea for a marketer who doesn’t want to annoy the heck out of their paying customers.
But sometimes it doesn’t make practical sense to do this or, for whatever reason, it’s technically difficult or impossible, so the Internet marketer isn’t able to do segregate their customers in this way. In that case, it’s up to you whether to unsubscribe or accept that some of the emails you get will promote the product you’ve already bought.
The bottom line is that Internet marketers can be expected to do Internet marketing. If we don’t like how someone goes about it, our best bet is to unsubscribe.
On the other hand, we might want to stay subscribed to a few lists and see what we can learn from what these Internet marketers do. Seeing how various Internet marketers engage in email marketing can be worth much more than buying a course on email marketing… and it’s free. Just one caveat: just because an Internet marketer does a certain thing doesn’t mean it actually works. Use your judgment!
September 3rd, 2010 at 4:45 am
When i sign up, i’m fully aware that the person is a marketer. The problem isn’t supporting their business, my main problem is the lack of cohesion in their offers. . Case in point: after you’ve sold someone a money making system, don’t sell them another one! Sooner or later, they’re going to need an auto-responder: sell them that the next time. Sooner or later, they’re going to need hosting: sell them that the next time. Sooner or later, they’re going to need tools like market samurai, sell them that the next time, and so the cycle continues. In between that, maybe broadcast letters educating that person why that product or service would be an important next step, that way you building a relationship with the lead, & also becoming an authority on a subject in that person’s mind. Most marketers messages come across as someone trying to sell the pot of gold at end of the rainbow (We are tired of that.) For as long as brain dead marketing happens, we will continue voting with our mouses by clicking ‘unsubscribe’.
September 3rd, 2010 at 7:44 am
Thanks for the comment, Internet guy. I agree – if a marketer is just sending out ‘brain dead marketing’ the best thing to do is to unsubscribe!
September 13th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I really like how the video begins. I believe that we all love Internet Marketing, this is why we read this blog