Marketing Eric

There are two breeds of internet marketers these days: the ethical and unethical. These the two kinds of marketers have made their living side by side in the past without many problems, but the shift to online marketing has made marketing departments more accountable for their marketing methods and as a result unethical marketing has become more transparent to customers. Because of this transparency, marketing departments are beginning to take the high road when trying to acquire new clients and have stopped using methods that are likely to hurt their brand image such as mass email and phone campaigns. Companies fear losing customers, or even worse starting an anti-company movement because of one bad judgment call in the marketing department.

While considering this at the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, I started to write down some ideas that I would like to share with other online marketers. I have debated with others these three ideals for online marketing and they are only a few of the values that I hold onto when preparing a marketing campaign for a company or product.

This rule is generally something that I apply as a measuring tool when I am considering email marketing people. Many companies abuse email marketing campaigns by tossing out a mile long net and hoping to catch a few new customers, but in doing so turn off many other potential customers. Companies use techniques such as purchasing email lists from disreputable sources or gathering addresses themselves through tricking users into it. We are all familiar with sites that attempt to get us to sign up for their newsletter by slipping in a check box in a corner of a form that they hope you ignore so they can have your permission to market to your email address. Email providers such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail now make it so easy for users to flag email as spam and users are not hesitating to tag your emails as such.

Examples of Great Newsletter Marketing:

• Christian Book Newsletter
• iVillage Newsletters
• Kayak.com Newsletters (see also this review of Kayak Newsletters)

Something that companies can do to give a face lift to their email marketing campaigns is to offer a more customized newsletter, offering users to choose certain items that interest them. Rather than sending them the latest electronics deals that covers everything from televisions to the kitchen fridge, have them sign up for a more specific department or even a singular product. If a user is looking to buy a new home theater system and a flat screen television, let them subscribe to receive the latest deals and updates for that department. I know that you might feel that by removing those other items from your email you will lose sales on items that people aren’t even thinking about, but I promise you that your audience will begin to trust your brand more through your new marketing techniques. I must also mention that this idea of newsletter categories isn’t always appropriate because sometimes marketers offer too many categories or don’t emphasize the appropriate ones.

Being open with your customers about certain things can have its benefits and often lead to a more harmonious relationship with your customers. I try to nurture an honest relationship with customers in many cases because it is a method that builds great brand loyalty. Another idea that relates to being transparent about your company is being open to new ideas that your customers might have. Give customers a way to voice their opinions, even if you want to keep their opinions confidential.

Recently a computer programmer created some audio drivers to make older audio cards manufactured by Creative Technology Windows Vista compatible. Rather than applauding his efforts and thanking him, Creative accused him for “stealing their goods”. The result of this action caused a backlash online where Creative customers became outraged and many of them promised never to purchase Creative products again.

I will admit that this rule won’t apply to everyone. Companies who in the tech industry for example aren’t able to be as transparent about their operations and flaws because it will benefit the competition. I don’t expect to see Apple have a sudden change in mind about their loose lips sink ships policy where the few rumors that escape Cupertino end up landing someone in a court case.

There’s something new going on with companies now that online presences is becoming more and more common. Companies are beginning to have conversations with their audience, and this results in a lot of good and bad publicity. As many marketers have said in the past, there is no such thing as bad publicity. For a new brand this idea might fly with me, but for an established brand it can hurt your image immensely. The last thing you want your marketing department to do is tarnish your image through bad customer relations. Actually, this idea not only applies to your marketing department, but any department that mingles with the customers. Make sure that everyone in your company knows how important it is to treat everyone with respect and hire only those who have proven to be honorable and generally nice people. Cut throat is great when it comes to taking on the competition, but make sure your people know they can’t take that type of attitude out into the world with them.