The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

My wife’s Blackberry makes an obnoxious sound every time an e-mail comes in. She reaches for it, glances at the title and who it is from. It has become an automatic reflex like how, when someone approaches my car for money, I roll up the window. With her phone she not only receives text e-mails but pictures and even video. This is great for marketers if they can only get her interested enough to open her e-mail.

E-mail used to be the thing. At one time everyone used to open every e-mail. There was even a movie called ‘You’ve Got Mail’. Imagine everyone opening every mail sent. Of course, the marketing folk abused that no end. It is called spam. In countries such as the Bahamas, they still send these e-mail blasts to people who have absolutely no interest in your product. They get your name off a list and sell it around. It’s really lazy marketing.

That is why persons like me receive e-mails on lady’s shoes. I’ll bet the open rate, that is the amount of opens versus the amount they send out, is very, very small. I mean, like one in every 1,000. The more targeted your e-mails are, the higher your open rate will be.

Sorry if I offend my marketing colleagues out there, but stop sending me these e-mails I do not want and did not ask for. I use e-mail marketing as well, and I heartily apologise to anyone I may have inadvertently offended with this. People who do not want to be on these lists should unsubscribe. Even if you have asked to be on a list and do not want to be there any longer, the proper protocol is to unsubscribe.

I try my best to segment my lists, so if you have requested information on kickboxing for weight loss at my Judo school, you receive health-related information. However, if you are on my marketing e-mail list, I don’t send you information on Judo for your children unless you asked for it. Now, because of the spam e-mails, I have noticed the information on my highly targeted e-mails is being opened less and less. Eight out of every 100 seems to be a good open rate, whereas just a year back it used to be 15 out of every 100.

With e-mail marketing, my experience is that if you send useful information in the form of a story, the more likely it will be read. People don’t want to be bombarded with sales offers, no matter how good they are, or they simply will not open your e-mails. You have to gain their trust, as well as position yourself as an authority before you try and sell them anything.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://darcyrahming.com