Take Advantage Of Technology

We live in a very computer literate society with computers and e-mails a standard feature of our day to day business activity. More and more homes each year have Internet access and the Government's digital strategy is promoting that we become more wired as a country. People are increasingly making purchases via the Internet (Trade Me has year-on-year phenomenal growth). People keep in touch with the news via the Internet.

Are you taking advantage of the increasing use of computers, emails and the Internet to promote your business?

Keeping In Contact

Marketers are forever reminding us that businesses need to keep in contact with clients at least three or four times a year, to retain their interest in the business and in the products and services it offers. What better way to do this than by utilising the power of mass mail outs by electronic means such as e-newsletters, e-news, and e-magazines. In short, E-mail Marketing.

E-mail marketing serves many purposes. Some e-marketing is designed to sell or market new products or services, or advertise product or service specials. You may want to send a newsletter to clients to impart some information of specific interest or just to inform readers on matters of general interest. E-marketing can be used to send invitations or to make announcements about your business. It can just be a way of keeping in touch. Air New Zealand, Fly Buys and the Chamber of Commerce are organisations that all use e-marketing for diverse reasons.

In short, good reasons for doing an e-newsletter are:

Great for nurturing client relationships.
Helps you to remain "top of mind".
Speedy to send.
No stamps required.
Lower cost compared to printed mail outs.
Helps you obtain new clients.

Planning A Mass Mail Out

If you are thinking about doing e-marketing here is a check list of things to consider.

Planning

Purpose -You need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve from your e-marketing. Is it to promote a new product? Is it to introduce a new member of the Team? Is it to let clients know what you have been doing recently?
Frequency - Are you planning ad hoc occasional contact by e-mail or are you planning a regular mail out?
Database Management - Consider what information you need to collect, possible sources of information, how the information is to be stored (for example in a spreadsheet, Contact Management software such as ACT or GoldMine, a relational database such as Access, FileMaker etc.), who will maintain the database.
Decide if the e-newsletter is to be self contained or to be used to drive subscribers to your website for additional information.

Writing

Purpose - Does your planned newsletter or flyer or invitation clearly say what is intended? Will it work in getting across your message?
Content - Short and snappy, with headlines is best.
Number of pages - again short and snappy is best.
Style - If people are reading electronically, use a style that is easy and quick to read. More than one column looks nice in printed form but is difficult to read electronically. Clients will just not read your text if it's hard work.

Design

Decide if the e-newsletter is to be sent as plain text, formatted text, or to look like your website with formatted text and images.
Consider the location of attention grabbing headlines, menus and images.

In House or Out Sourced

At some stage you need to decide if the production and distribution is to be done in house or out sourced.
In house - This requires consideration of what software to use e.g. Word & Excel, or proprietary bulk mail software which you either own or rent.
Out sourced - This requires an understanding of what you are paying for (the number of e-mails sent, the number of addresses on the database, or a fixed monthly fee) and who is to manage the database.
To help you make some of the decisions use a search engine such as Google or Bing and type in the words: "mass mail software", "bulk mail software", "mass e-mail software".

Anti-Spam Law Passed - Don't Panic

You may be concerned that e-marketing could be interpreted as sending Spam. The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007, (the anti-spamming legislation), took effect in September 2007. This legislation aims to prohibit the sending of unsolicited electronic messages (in the form of e-mails, text messages, or instant messages) of a marketing nature and provide a legislative basis to combat the growth of spam. It is intended to prevent New Zealand becoming a haven for spammers, to promote good e-marketing practice, and to provide a basis for further international cooperation on combating spam.

Key Requirements

The Minister of Communications in talking about the new legislation noted that the key requirements of the legislation are that persons must not send unsolicited commercial electronic messages that have a New Zealand link, and that commercial electronic messages must have accurate sender information and contain a functional unsubscribe facility. Persons must not use address-harvesting software or a harvested address list in connection with the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages. The legislation applies to all emails, text, and instant messages that market or promote goods, services, or schemes of a commercial nature. A sender must have the prior consent of the recipient. This consent can be expressed, inferred, or deemed, but this is clearly an opt-in approach, consistent with good e-marketing practice as recommended by the New Zealand Marketing Association.

The Minister also noted that electronic communication offers many benefits and the legislation seeks to support its use for legitimate marketing purposes where the interests of the recipient are duly respected.

The Main Bits

The Act is designed to:

Prohibit unsolicited commercial electronic messages with a NZ link.
Require commercial electronic messages to include accurate information about the person who authorised the sending of the message and to
Include an unsubscribe facility.
Prohibit address-harvesting lists being used.

It is not designed to stop good, legitimate e-marketing.

So What Does This Mean?

To assist their members, organisations such as the NZ Marketing Association (NZMA ) have developed standards for e-mail marketers. Several law firms also have information on the legislation (Type 'spam' into a search engine or on the NZMA site and see what comes up). Better still the Department of Internal Affairs has a website 'devoted' to SPAM: www.antispam.govt.nz that may well interest you. In particular, the Business Information page - near the bottom of the page there is an Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act Guide for businesses.

Having check out the Department of Internal Affairs' AntiSPAM website, make sure your e-marketing database records are up-to-date and retain only those names from people who have specifically opted to be on your database. From now on in make sure you explicitly seek approval before adding someone to your mailing list or data. Furtheremore, ensure that the message you (or a third party sends on your behalf) clearly identifies your business and how you can be contacted.

Every month there are complaints to the Department of Internal Affairs. The bulk of these relate to the fact that a person had not subscribed to the message or that the message lacked an unsubscribe facility. Another common type of complaint relates to the fact that a person had unsubscribed and yet messages continued to be sent. So make sure you're not the business being complained about (and being taken to court).