Blind blasts!

Internet marketing, in some organisations is looked at as just e-mailer blasts to different databases to get an instant sale for your products. And this could be because marketing on the internet is looked as something which is catching on, so while the organisation is pumping money on hoardings and publications and TVC and all the jazz, well, let’s just do something on the internet, cause everyone is, and see how it goes.

What most marketers miss is that internet marketing is not just about sending e-mail blasts. Since there aren’t many valid good databases around, the same set of e-mail ids keep on getting e-mailers from different sources. And very soon, as expected, the open rates drop (more and more people recognise these mails as spam, even though database owners market them as ‘promotional material’ meant to benefit the users..).
So in a nutshell, how ever much you space your mailers – if you’re sending it to same databases over and over again, the open rates will drop, response rates will (obviously drop) and so will the ROI per order.

So what’s the solution?

A comprehensive online marketing strategy as I understand it.
This should include the long and short term objectives, and then create activities around these to achieve the desired results.
And e-mail blasts should be just one activity, sent to extremely select group of people who have opted in to receive these mailers.