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In this Issue
The Plague of SpamThe most difficult part of designing and sending electronic newsletters today is the flood of spam that plagues the Internet. Most studies indicate that 50 to 60 per cent of all email traffic is unsolicited commercial email. To cope with this, internet service providers install spam filters on their email servers, and individual computer owners now have email clients that filter spam. Companies have popped up to create blacklists of organizations known to generate spam. Although electronic newsletters can be an effective way to keep up awareness with your clients, newsletters can easily be confused with spam. And once that happens, your ability to communicate with your clients is severely restricted. At Digital Wind, we work around this problem by respecting the recipients' needs. First, the only recipients who should receive an electronic newsletter are those who have explicitly requested to receive it. Your corporate web site should have a readily visible subscription mechanism. You can also include mention of the newsletter in your sales calls. But the key is to seek permission first before mailing. Second, if a client wants to be taken off the mailing list, that wish should be respected, and responded to quickly. The mechanism for unsubscribing should be obvious and easy to use. If the recipients cannot figure out how to unsubscribe, they may simply add your newsletter to their spam blacklist, which—from a corporate communcations perspective—is a terrifying prospect. And third, the newsletters themselves must not look like spam. No hyperbolic ad copy. No free offers. Minimal graphics. Newsletters should contain useful and interesting information written in a crisp and professional manner. The side benefit of honoring all these requirements is that the result is not only a newsletter that will actually reach the people who want to read it, but that the newsletter itself will be top quality, and better reflect your company's interests. Outside-InSeeing through the customer's eyes makes for an effective web siteMany small companies tend to make the same mistake when building their corporate web sites; they forget who the web site is for. "Well, that's obvious," they might say. "The web site helps us get our message out. It puts our brand in front of people's eyes. It's where we explain our company and products to potential customers." Sounds good — but in our experience here at Digital Wind, it's a perfect example of thinking from the inside-out, whereas when building a web site, you need to think from the outside-in. Customers come to web sites because they have questions about your product. They are asking: "Does this product meet my needs? What does it do for me that a competing product does not? How much is it? Where can I get it?" And as they browse your web site, customers will completely ignore anything that doesn't resemble an answer to their specific questions. It can be distressing to realize that you're not in control of your company's message on your own web site. After all, in your marketing campaign, you get to write your own message, and dictate how the customer views it. But on a web site, the customers are in the driver seat. And they don't much care about your marketing message. And here's an even more critical (and perhaps frightening) thought: Your customers are probably using your web site to make direct one-to-one comparisons between you and your competitors. Worse, they are likely talking to each other about you. How do you combat this free-for-all? First and foremost, your corporate web site must answer your customers' questions quickly and efficiently. Your corporate marketing plan must take the back seat. Because if your customers get their answers from your competitors more quickly than from you, you're not even in the race. Perception is RealityLooking bigger than you arePerception is reality. These three words have been used and overused, but when it comes to presenting your company to the public, they are so true. No matter what the size of your company, if your corporate image is professional and credible, customers and prospects will perceive you as such. The perception that you want to create in the mind of the public should be encompassed within your company's marketing tools. A professional, standardized corporate colour palate should be used in every piece of marketing collateral your company uses; letterhead, logo, brochures, web site, or newsletters. These should all carry a unified style, look and feel. The resulting image that your company will portray is one of stability and confidence. Smaller companies will actually look bigger than they are. Even if your company is small, a coherent, focused, and well-designed image has a better chance of succeeding, whether you are pitching to another small business or to a multinational corporation. Contact and Subscription InformationDigital Wind's newsletter is a periodic mailing about the business of branding in the digital age sent to subscribers only. If you find this information valuable, please pass it on to a friend. SubscriptionsTo subscribe to the Digital Wind newsletter, visit http://digitalwind.com/subscribe/ If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, you may unsubscribe in one of three ways:
Past IssuesArchives of the Digital Wind newsletter can be found at http://digitalwind.com/subscribe/ FeedbackHave a complaint? Want to tell us we're doing a great job? Contact Jim Royal at Digital Wind with your comments and suggestions. We'd love to hear from you. About Digital WindMontreal-based Digital Wind can manage your company's entire public image, from logo design to web design to corporate email newsletters. |
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