Part of my core schtick at Top of Mind is to ask my prospects two critical questions about email marketing:
1) Why are so many companies leveraging email as their primary vehicle for communicating with clients and prospects?
Two reasons – email is cheap and email is easy.
2) Why are you getting 200+ emails in your inbox every day?
Exactly. Cheap and easy creates a low barrier to entry… and a low barrier to entry creates clutter. Clutter is a marketer’s worst enemy. Bad news folks – Facebook is cheap and easy too.
I’m very fortunate to have some groovy friends in the mortgage industry – and after my Facebook Webinar with Brian Brady, I made even more of them. Now I’m getting my new friends’ updates and:
75% of the time they’re telling me it’s time to refinance, locking loans or boring me with industry vernacular I don’t understand.
20% of the time they’re giving me a play by play on what they’re eating, what color tie they’re wearing or something else I really don’t care about
Okay, so now we’ve identified the problem. Next step is fixing it. Here are some best practices I’ve seen and a few I haven’t.
1) Keep an eye on your frequency. Here’s a general rule of thumb: the more compelling and fresh your status updates are, the more frequency you can get away with. I think the sweet spot is 3 updates a week so long as they can pass the next test…
2) Before updating your status, ask yourself if anyone really cares. How many of your 250 friends care that you’re getting ready for bed? For me, that’s the equivalent of tuning into MIX 96 FM and hearing “I’ll Tumble For Ya” by Culture Club. I’m flailing like a maniac for the next station even if it causes a 57-car pile up. If I hear enough Culture Club on MIX 96, they’re off my speed dial FOREVER. Same goes for my Facebook pals. Sorry, just keepin’ it real.
3) Have a strong take on something topical – politics, current events, sports, etc. You don’t have to tell your friends that you’re Read more