Many of us have spent the better part of this year embroiled in a digital battle
against spam. It started with the very first of the year when we were hit with a
storm of malicious e-mails that, although annoying, were pretty easily identified
and dispatched by the recipients.

The floodgates opened in August when Google announced that it had detected
cyberattacks aimed at Google users and took down various websites and online
services that were part of the plot.

Since then, spam has dominated our conversations on social media platforms like
Twitter, where we’ve discussed at length the effectiveness of various email
campaigns and the best ways to combat spam. As a result of the spike in interest,
we’ve learned a lot about the uses and abuses of spam e-mail – both good and bad. In
this article, we’ll examine some of the most effective uses of spam e-mail in
competitive online marketing programs.

Email Marketing & Testing

You might be wondering why you should bother sending out all those e-mails in the
first place. After all, aren’t you just trying to sell a product or service? While
this is true, there are multiple benefits to email marketing.

Firstly, it’s one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. You can
basically get away with sending out hundreds of emails for free, as long as you use
a tool like Benchmark to track opens and clicks. With those numbers, you can then
calculate the cost per acquisition (CPA) for specific campaigns and adjust your
strategy on the fly.

Secondly, sending out regular emails allows you to follow-up with
conversions. If a user visits your website, browses some of your products, and
makes a purchase but you haven’t communicated with them since then, you might lose
out on a sale.

By taking the time to get in touch with your customers and potential customers
via email, you can remind them of your existence and, hopefully, get them to
convert back to your site.

Advertising

We’ve all been there. You search for something on YouTube or Google and the
first result is an ad for some product or service. While this might not seem like a
bad thing, YouTube viewers tend to have low tolerance for ads, especially when
they’re popping up in their faces every few seconds.

This is where advertising in the form of email marketing comes in. If you want
to target potential customers who are already inclined to be interested in your
products or services, you can put up an ad on a website or blog that’s specifically
designed to promote products and services related to your niche. For example, if
you’re in the online marketing space and you’re trying to attract webmasters
interested in SEO, you could put up a blog post about the best tools and resources
for optimizing websites. In the post, you could include an affiliate link to a
product that helps webmasters get their websites ranked higher in Google search
results.

Then, when a user clicks on that affiliate link and makes a purchase, you’ll earn
a small commission, without having to do anything.

Product Launching

One of the hardest things to do in online marketing is to get people to try your
products or services out for the first time. Like getting them to visit your site
in the first place, getting them to try your product after they’ve discovered you
is hard work.

Sending out a few emails with a free sample in them can be a great way to
launch a new product, website, or service. Those emails can then be followed up
with more personalized emails containing links to content that’s specific to that
user.

Getting people to try your product or service isn’t always easy, but with
personalized emails you can be fairly certain that they’ll have a much greater
chance of becoming long-term customers. The key is to make sure that the emails
you send out are not only personalized but also relevant to the person receiving
them.

Customer Service

No, we don’t mean those awful automated responses where the same email
circulates among different departments. We mean sending out individual emails to
your customers, updating them on the progress of their orders, and making sure
that their needs are being met.

Those of us who deal with customer service on a daily basis know how
frustrating it can be when a customer asks for something and you don’t know how to
accomplish that without causing further complications. If you’ve ever tried to
make a purchase and the customer service rep was unable to help, it’s not
uncommon for you to feel like you’re being attacked by a swarm of angry bees.

By taking the time to email customers regularly and keep track of their
requirements via a CRM system, you can put a stop to those frustrating
communications jams. Having all your communication in one place makes it much
easier to keep track of customer service requests and follow up on them, no
matter how large or small the order is. In addition, you can take this opportunity
to remind customers of your existence and, hopefully, get them to come back for
further business.

New Product Launching

When a company launches a new product or service, it’s always exciting to hear
about it. However, when that new product or service is targeted at your
competition, it can be a little unnerving. Essentially, you’re either competing
with someone or something new, or you’re going up against an existing
competitor who’s upped their game.

Either way, when you have a new product that you believe will be a game-changer
for your industry, the smart thing to do is to send out a bunch of emails
pre-launch.

You can tell your customers all about the amazing new product that will
revolutionize your industry and how they can take advantage of it. You can also
ask them to spread the word about your new venture and help it get off the ground
successfully. The worst thing you can do is to keep your mouth shut and let
yourcompetition steal your thunder. Taking the time to spread the word about your
new product and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry is
critical to the success of your venture.

The truth is, when it comes to online marketing, there are many valid uses of
spam e-mail. The trick is knowing how to apply it effectively. Before you put up
an ad on Google or YouTube, consider the demographics you’re trying to reach, the
platforms your ad will appear on, and how you’ll track the results of your
campaign. With a little bit of planning and testing, you can use spam e-mail to
reach your target audience and convert them into customers who’ll stay with you
for the long haul.