As our lives are gradually moving towards a more digital realm, our problems are too. I remember, how our mailboxes would be cluttered with tons of flyers and brochures back in the day. Frankly, it was a menace. I had no use for most of them and they would end up in the wastepaper basket. Now, there are less of these flyers plying around mailboxes.

Sounds good, right? Not quite. Now, these unwanted pieces of paper have taken a digital form. They come disguised as emails and SMSs. Yes, this is spam and this is how it works. But how do you respond to spam? How do you make it stop? Clearly, if you think it is spam that means it has no relevance to you at all.

A Menace That Torments Us All

We face this menace every single day. The reason why such emails and messages become spam in the first place is that they are unsolicited. The marketers who are sending these emails clearly do not respect your opinion or your privacy. They will keep dispatching their propaganda relentlessly in order to gain sales. But does that work? Never.

Most of the time, marketers who resort to such means buy email lists online. These lists are filled with defunct email addresses or email addresses of people who have no idea that they are going to be bombarded with spam. So, there is no opt-in involved. Hence, it results in spam.

Also Read: Do Not Turn Your Email Marketing Campaigns Into Spam

Most email service providers like Gmail provide a tool to filter out potential spam or to channel spam into a bulk email folder. Gmail also allows you to segregate emails automatically into folders like inbox, social, updates, forums, promotions. Ideally, all unwanted promotional emails should land into the promotions or spam folder by default.

Ways To Respond To Spam

Don’t let the title mislead you. Spam emails are often dangerous and malicious. Do not even think about replying or “responding” to them. Your best course of action, for starters, is to steer clear of them. Then there are other courses of action that you can take up in order to reduce and respond to spam.

Unsubscribe & Report

All email marketers need to put in an unsubscribe button in their emails. You can click on this button and that will immediately prompt an option to report the sender as spam. Once you have done that, you shouldn't be receiving any emails from this particular company/marketer anymore. It’s one of the simplest yet effective methods to tackle spam.

Many a time, we do not bother and just ignore these emails. If the email doesn't have the unsubscribe button then don't shy away from reporting such emails to your email service provider. A single click can help hurt these unscrupulous email marketers where it hurts the most: their domain reputation. If multiple people keep reporting them as spam, their mass mailing accounts will eventually get banned by the email service provider.

Send An Email

Most email service providers comply with spam laws and there needs to be an unsubscribe button in all emails. Now, what if there isn’t? Then the unsubscribe action does not work for you anymore. Then, how do you respond to spam? Well, you can send the company an email and ask them politely to remove your email address from their list. Most companies should comply with your request. But, then again, there are exceptions. And, obviously, there are ways to tackle these exceptions as well. More on that later.

Then, there’s the second scenario. You like a company and want to stay updated. So, you opted-in and decided to become a subscriber. However, to your utter dismay, they keep sending you innumerable emails every day to the point where it looks like they are spamming you. Your best option is to ask them politely to remove you from their mailing list. Voila! Problem solved.

Connect With Company Representatives

If the above processes do not work for you, this might. If you know someone who works for the company that keeps spamming you, approach them. Explain to them, with proof (if possible) the problem that you are facing. Ask them if they can do anything to help you out. They should comply with your request as the reputation of their company is at stake.

Report On Social Media

I’m telling you, believe me, social media works wonders when it comes to spam. Nowadays, every company has social media accounts and they try to maintain as positive an image as possible. If you air your concerns on their social media accounts by posting on their page or tagging them, chances are, someone from their end will contact you to solve your problem. No one wants bad publicity on social media networks. It spreads like wildfire and can ruin their reputation.

Report To FTC

The CAN-SPAM Act, a federal law to tackle spam menace sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

I really hope that it does not come to this. But if you are still getting spam emails from someone whom you unsubscribed from or tried to report, report to the Federal Trade Commission. Gather all the evidence you have, including the spam email and send them an email at spam@uce.gov.

Say Goodbye To Spam

The best way to respond to spam is to be proactive. Fight it whenever you see it and keep reporting it to your email service providers. Spam grows like a weed, and you have to keep removing it until there are no more left.

Ask any email marketer when the best time to send emails is. And, they will promptly say that you should better do it before 12 noon from Tuesday through Thursday. But how much does this statement hold true now? Even a few years back, marketers would always time their emails so that the maximum number of recipients would read it.

This would be some time before people started working and after they reached work. Why? Because they would have access to their respective email accounts. People would check their emails, and hopefully, they would open what marketers sent them. It was a tried and tested formula that usually yielded results. But things have changed now. What used to be the best time to send emails, might not, after all, be the best time anymore.

What Do The Numbers Have to Say?

Let’s take a look at this study by Experian which says something completely opposite. Irrespective of industries, email recipients are more active at night.

In fact, it was noticed that the average unique open rates were 21.7% from 8 P.M. to 11.59 P. M. and 17% from 12 A.M. to 4 A.M. If you dig deeper you will see that these recipients exhibited click-through rates of 4.2% and 3.2% respectively. On top of this, more than 54% of emails are opened on a mobile device nowadays.

Emails that were sent on Monday had the highest ROI. Emails mailed on Friday had the highest click-through rate. However, during the weekend emails had the highest open and click-through rates compared to the volume sent. So, people who opened their emails during the weekend more likely ended up making a purchase. This makes us all wonder, what is the best time to send emails?

Anytime Works (Really!)

It is confusing, right? With so many different data and figures, it is hard to figure out which day works best. Should you go for an unconventional time, late in the evening? Or should you turn yourself into a weekend warrior? The truth is the best time to send emails is anytime. Oh no, I am not joking at all. I am sure you must be wondering that after everything that experts say on choosing a time to send emails, how “anytime” can be possible. I can understand your concern.

Oh no, I am not joking at all. I am sure you must be wondering that after everything that experts say on choosing a time to send emails, how “anytime” can be possible. I can understand your concern.

The truth is, times are changing, and so is technology.

Mobile Phones Galore

One of the primary reasons why anytime works is because everyone has a smartphone nowadays. Remember, how I was talking about going to work and then checking their emails? Well, that is not the case anymore. With more than 54% of emails being viewed on mobile phones, it is no longer a desktop-bound element. In fact, the numbers just keep rising. With a smartphone, people can check their emails anytime they want to.

But there’s a catch. On mobile phones, click-through rates are lower. The primary reason being most email marketers do not optimize their emails for mobiles. At this day and age, optimization is key if you want to generate leads. You need to make sure that your copy is crisp and the CTA is clear. If your customers cannot read the emails that you send them on their mobile, they are less likely to remain your customers for long.

But, when it comes to mobile phone email marketing, there comes another obstacle. Mobile phones have become an integral part of our life. You can say that it wakes up with us and goes to sleep with us. It is an extension of our own personality. So two different people who have different habits and sleeping patterns will have different times for checking emails. Trying to search for the best time to send emails might turn to be futile in this case.

So, What To Do?

Recent advancements in the field of marketing have seen marketers employ the use of Artificial Intelligence or AI. The best thing about using AI in marketing is their accuracy with predictions. What you can do is take the help of an AI to figure out the best time to send emails to each and every person.

If you're still trying to time your email blasts, then it's time to switch over to smart 1-to-1 email marketing delivered by smart marketing automation platforms. These platforms, send 1-to-1 emails to your prospects, the way you would have done manually.

You will be able to improve personalization in your marketing efforts. Along with that, more recipients will open their emails. This, in turn, will help you generate more leads and ultimately, close more deals.

As a digital marketer, email marketing is a must for you. But you need a contact list first. Otherwise who would you send those emails to, right? A popular legacy method is to purchase email lists. They are easily available and cheap.

But should you be doing this? Do you really think buying a cheap list off the internet is a good way to go about your email marketing strategy? Many marketers do that, but does that mean that you should? You shouldn’t. And, here’s why.

1.Your marketing goals will always remain unreachable.

Why are you purchasing a list? To generate more leads and close more deals, right? But you’ll be having the opposite effect completely.You will be emailing a bunch of people that you don’t know. Worse even, they don’t know you either.

 Do you like getting random emails from unknown people? They don’t either.

If you have a marketing strategy and goals to accomplish, rest assured you will never reach your target. Don’t think that I’m trying to discourage you. I’m not. I’m genuinely trying to help you out and prevent you from doing this mistake.

Buying lists will lead to sending emails to recipients who will ignore you for most of the time. Maybe someone will mark you as spam, and that’s when things get real serious.

It is really difficult to meet your goals if your mails keep ending up in everyone’s spam folder.

2.Your account can be shut down by email service providers.

If you are using an email service provider to send emails, you are probably on a shared IP email server. That means you share this mail server with a bunch of other companies.If you are using a purchased list, chances are, you will get marked as spam by your contacts. You will eventually get blacklisted after getting marked as spam repeatedly and have a low sender score.

Spamming other people is a punishable offense according to the law, but usually ESPs stop you way before you reach such a stage. They will block you and shut you down, because your activities are affecting other people on the same server.

In fact, many ESPs do not allow email campaigns that rely on purchased email lists.

3.You damage your own reputation.

Purchased email lists are mostly bogus. Not only do they consist of email ids of people who have not chosen to receive email from you, but it also includes defunct and fake email addresses.Such email addresses are known as spam traps. Your engagement rates fall down, negatively affecting your sender score. If your email campaign is faring badly, your score gets affected. And, your score reflects your reputation.

These email addresses might have checked a box somewhere in some distant era that said they were fine with receiving emails from affiliates, but never did they ever specify they would want emails from you.

4.Your contacts don’t know you.

When you purchase email lists, you don’t know whose email addresses you are purchasing. Neither do the people whose email addresses you are purchasing to put up on your contact list know you.I have mentioned this before, but this is something crucial when it comes to purchasing lists. Lists are usually scraped together from various sources, sometimes legit, mostly illicit.

Even if your source says that they are legit and opt-in email addresses, the thing is they did not opt-in to receive emails for you. They probably agreed to receive emails from some other company.

So, there is practically no point whatsoever to actually invest in such lists.

5.You can’t buy good email address lists.

Good email address lists cannot be bought. Purchased email address lists will always be disappointing. Email lists that can be bought are mostly bogus.One can even say that this entire business of selling and buying of email lists are nothing short of a sham. A good email list takes time to build. It requires hard work in the form of digital marketing.

You will have lure people to visit your website. Then you will have to provide them some kind of incentive so that they opt-in to receive information from you.

You can only strive for a good email address list if the email addresses in your list are okay with you sending them emails periodically.

Bottom Line

If you want to take your company forward then do not take this path. Purchasing email lists will give you nothing but pain and misery. It will turn your life to hell and will tear your company and its reputation apart.

Most of the time people purchase email lists because they are impatient. They want instant gratification in the form of success.

But success comes from being patient and working hard. There is no easy way out.

Concentrate on how you can get people to visit your site, and the rest will fall in place.

A well-built email newsletter can help in building an engaged consumer base for any business. There are many things that come together in formulating a successful email marketing campaign. Apart from meaningful and appealing content, another essential part of a newsletter is an eye-catching design. However, it can be difficult and time-consuming to build custom email newsletter templates from scratch.

Below listed are 10 resources, either free or very low-cost where you can find email newsletter templates that can be easily customized to suite your email client, branding and layout requirements.

MailChimp – MailChimp is considered to be one of the most popular email marketing services online and offers complete access to template builder and free newsletter templates. MailChimp offers a free Start Up plan that supports 12,000 emails per month for 2,000 subscribers. In addition, the paid plans offer a host of features with the ability to manage higher volumes.

Campaign Monitor – Campaign Monitor is a popular email service that facilitates customers to create their own templates. The templates could be customized on the basis of layouts, color schemes and fonts. The downloadable templates offer minimal and clean newsletter designs. Campaign Monitor’s template builder can help you create free HTML email templates in seconds that are both fully tested and mobile ready. Campaign Monitor offers more than 100 designs and styles.

Aweber – Aweber offers more than 700 HTML email templates. The templates come with multiple color schemes and feature 2-column and 1-column designs. The mobile responsive templates are compatible with leading email services and the service allows customers to create professional email marketing campaigns without the requirement of knowing designing or coding. The company also offers 24/7 support for building email campaigns.

GetResponse – GetResponse offers more than 500 HTML customizable templates with first-rate email creation tools. The website’s user-friendly drag-and- drop editor does not require the knowledge of HTML coding. The robust and powerful email sender is renowned for both design flexibility and reporting.

Email on Acid – Email on Acid provides free templates that include diverse content blocks that are capable of being duplicated or taken out in a simple manner. The templates are tested for rendering perfectly on every email client.

Zurb – The free and responsive newsletter templates offered by Zurb are thoughtfully made to ensure that the email campaign looks appealing on all devices. The templates that are available for making responsive emails include Basic, Hero, Sidebar, Sidebar Hero and Newsletter. In addition, the templates are optimized to work on almost all the email clients.

99designs – 99designs is an online platform for small designers and small businesses. With the help of their growing community of designers, the company offers 12 free email templates. Each of the templates are available in four colors and include a newsletter template, an email notification template and a promotional template. These templates, compatible with most of the email clients, could be downloaded through their website. Furthermore, customized newsletter templates could be created through 99designs’ crowd sourced design contests.

Antwort – The Antwort templates were originally created for transaction emails featuring dynamic content. The open and free source responsive layouts that works on all the devices could be downloaded through GitHub. The company provides three templates, including one three-column, one two-column and one single-column. The mobile-responsive designs are capable of being customized due to their minimalist designs.

Stamplia – Stamplia in partnership with Litmus, offers seven free newsletter templates that could be downloaded through the website. The responsive email templates work on all major email clients. The templates could be customized since they come along with PSD source files. The website also acts as a marketplace for buying and selling templates for transactional email and newsletters.

Constant Contact – Constant Contact, an email marketing tool, provides a range of marketing tools that emphasize mostly on email. The platform offers several features like drag and drop email template builder, free email templates and facilitates customers in successfully executing their campaigns.

Which email marketing tool do you use? Do you create your own templates or buy ready made templates? Do let us know.

The most primitive digital marketing technique known to marketers is email marketing and it is still one of the most relevant marketing channels. Marketers send email newsletters all the time to promote their products and services. But what if new subscribers sign up to get updates? They will start getting all these new emails all of a sudden, which will be extremely abrupt and will probably make the subscriber ignore the emails. Time is of the essence when email marketing is concerned, more so in this competitive environment.

Here is where drip marketing comes in. Drip marketing involves an automated email responding program that sends out a set of marketing emails at regular intervals to keep prospective leads in the loop. Drip marketing helps you to nurture leads in the long run and increase sales opportunities eventually.

What is Drip Marketing?

Drip marketing generally consists of a set of pre-structured emails that are mailed at regular intervals based on a specific timeline or actions of new subscribers. With marketing automation tools, you can personalize each of these mails which is a nice touch.

Basically, drip marketing makes your emails more relevant and meaningful to subscribers. For example, if someone has just subscribed to your blog, instead of receiving the new emails that you have been sending out to regular subscribers, the person will receive a welcome email. This email will help them to explore your products or services and understand what it is all about. Drip emails are trigger-based and depending on the action of your subscriber a suitable email can be sent to them.

Drip emails can range from welcome emails to some freebie that you’re giving out to subscribers. You can easily segment your subscriber base through drip marketing and focus on the groups that are close to making a buy. Keeping close tab of your subscribers through drip marketing will not only boost sales but it will also lead to fewer unsubscribes.

Drip mails work most of the time but be sure not to overuse this gem of a technique. It is one of the most thoughtful and easiest ways to nurture leads. You have to make sure that you don’t annoy your subscribers by emailing them frequently.

How to Set Up a Drip Marketing Campaign?

It is extremely easy to set up a drip marketing campaign. Following are the simple steps that will help you get an idea about how to set up such a campaign for your subscribers.

1. Identify your Audience: The very first step of a drip marketing campaign is to separate your audience into different groups. Each group will be formed depending upon their demographics and general interaction on your website. Depending upon their actions on your blog or website, you will group them so that they receive emails relevant to their interactions. The relevance in your emails will keep them interested in your website for a longer period of time.

2. Construct your Email: Now that you are aware of your target audience by segmenting them, you will have to grab their attention through your emails. You have to create an email that will be helpful to your cause and make them interested in your products. In drip marketing, it’s the words that count and not necessarily the email design and layout. Keep your message simple yet provocative, so that the subscriber is curious to click on a link and take a step further in their buying cycle. Also, make sure you compose a catchy subject for your email so that subscribers are eager to open it and check what’s inside.

3. Set a Plan: It goes without saying that when you are thinking about launching a marketing campaign, you will chalk out a plan that will lay down the guidelines of the campaign. Your drip marketing workflow should start from the welcome and then gradually move over to the sale and finally lead to support. Relevance is the key as your emails should be the direct effect of a subscriber’s actions. There’s nothing worse than sending generic emails to your subscribers that does not seem to generate any response at all.

4. Evaluate: Once you have carried out the above steps, start your campaign but do not forget about it afterward. Always keep following up on the campaign so that you can supervise what is going on. Tweak your campaign where necessary so that you get better results. You will be able to reach your goals through a process of trial and error. In the end, the process will be extremely enriching and rewarding.

Types of Drip Marketing

Depending upon your audience segmentation, you can employ different types of drip marketing for each segment at the same time. Marketing Automation software like MarketingLeo and others make this task extremely easy for you.

1. Top-Of-Mind: Just as the name suggests, this type of drip marketing will keep your leads engaged all the time. It is a very effective way of nurturing leads and transform them into valuable customers.

2. Educational: This type of drip helps you to educate your subscribers about your products so that they can make their buying decision accordingly. It can also be a training program meant for new users of your product so that they can use it effectively.

3. Re-engagement: Often there are leads that grow cold all of a sudden and in order to win them back, a re-engagement drip campaign can be used.

4. Promotional: Very common among marketers, promotional drip campaigns help promote new products, or maybe a limited time offer applicable to subscribers only.

5. Competitive: Competitive drip marketing is targeted on users of your competitor’s products in order for them to switch over to your product.

All in all, drip marketing is a fascinating subject that allows you to effectively attract new leads, nurture them and boost sales. Drip campaigns are easy to organize and give you enough room to modify and adjust according to customer demographic. Need help organizing a drip campaign, send us an email to info@esanosys.com and we’ll get in touch immediately!