E-mail marketing in Sri Lanka done by e-biznessworld relies purely on spamming the hell out of there e-mail subscriber base. In there page about e-mail marketing they boast of having an e-mail subscriber base with more than 100,000 e-mail addresses but they don't mention how they got hold of such a number. They boast of having CEO's, Company directors, Senior managers in there list but I doubt any of them bother reading there e-mails. The only way someone can subscribe to there list is by replying to there e-mail messages with "Add Me" in the subject line. There is an option of unsubscribing by replying to there messages with "No" in the subject line but it doesn't work because the e-mails keep on coming how many times you reply with "No". There are plenty of spam compliant E-mail marketing software, with Aweber being the most popular software, but the leading E-mail marketing agency in Sri Lanka is still relying on very old methods that depends on user doing all the work manually. Other than being a nuisance there are ethical and legal issues as well because whatever you do you cant stop receiving those mails and just about the only thing you can do is mark them as spam so they will go to the spam folder. And I'm pretty sure most of those subscriber has already market them as spam.
Bad investment for advertisers
I don't know how much they charge from an advertiser to send an e-mail to there list and if it is very cheap then it might be worth it because 100,000 is a huge amount and few are bound to read them. But consider these things before you are advertising
- The e-mails are poorly targeted - In one day alone you can get a advertisement about an Art exhibition, A conference about credit management and details about a land sale. These are three different things and it is very unlikely that someone will be interested in all three. So even if your ad is read it is not read by someone who is actively looking for it.
- There e-mails are considered as spam - Not only are these ads irrelevant because of constantly abusing there list they are more likely to be seeing as spamming and I'm sure there are quite a few who has already marked them as spam. So although they might have a list of 100,000 the number alone could be misleading.
- Ethical and legal issues - I'm not so sure about the rules here in Sri Lanka but it is generally not ethical to send e-mail to someone without there consent and in some countries it is illegal as well if you are constantly doing that. More than anything your company could look like spamming and could ruin your brands reputation.
If your a businessman your main concern it Return of Investment(ROI) so carefully consider those facts before doing advertising with them. It it just costs you around Rs.5000 to send to that huge list( If the numbers are actually true ) then it might be a worthy investment.
Doing E-mail marketing the correct way
Without a doubt E-mail marketing is a powerful tool to grow your business provided that you go about it in the right way. It is a great way to capture leads and to follow up on existing customers but you will your customers quickly if you start abusing the list. If you are sending two or three mails everyday to your list you will quickly start loosing subscribers and the value of the list. In one of my future posts I will show some best practices in E-mail marketing and how to setup your own E-mail list in an ethical manner.
Dude, I have seen you similar post making allegations to many other eMarketing agencies in Sri Lanka. I can sense, your objective seems to be get into this same business, by running down competing agencies with this type of blog posts. That’s not the right way to do it. If you want to get into their business, just start your own thing and prove that you do better. What you are doing is unethical as well.
Well Beni I would be glad if you can point me to a post where I was making similar allegations. The archive is there for everyone to see so be my guest in finding a similar post. Any company that sends e-mails 3-4 times a day and doesn’t have an option for unsubscribing is spamming in my book. Thanks for the interest and the comment though.
I agree Nishadha. I’m an Inbound Marketing Certified professional with Inbound Advantage, so I completely understand the value of email marketing when it’s done correctly. It can be a powerful tool to grow your subscriber list and further your brand. However, like you said, sending unsolicited emails to large email lists is bad news. Legal concerns aside, it’s a complete waste of time. Any business still investing in this type of email spamming is way behind in the game. Email marketing the right way (i.e. opt-in, targeted, sending valuable information rather than product promotions or sales pitches, providing opt-out or unsubscribe options, and never more than about 2 a week) is extremely effective. Thanks for the post Nishadha.
Exactly what I’m trying to say Brandon, E-mail marketing should be opt-in and more importantly targeted, spamming huge lists is a total waste of time and money. Thanks for the comment
Although most global agencies have an Indian footprint, there are several home grown digital marketing agencies which have made their mark in India and abroad. Some of them include Ignitee Digital, Webchutney, Contest2win etc. A lot of campaigns for international brands are handled by these agencies, like I heard Sony Entertainment is being handled by Ignitee Digital Solutions.
Email marketing have really lots of disadvantages compare to the other form of marketing like social media marketing. In email marketing, it would be best to know your target, and to that you need to create a email marketing list.
This is the saddest truth about email marketing. The tendency to spam is there. Email marketing that is not target is useless. I am receiving lots of spams myself which I am deleting without even bothering what they are or where they come from!
Great article very helpful. I know most of these items however its nice to have it all laid out in one place for reference.