I know you think you hate SPAM. I certainly do. But I've also learnt a few useful tricks from the deviants who flood our inbox. Here's how SPAM works for us.

Knock, Knock - somebody's home

Ever noticed how one day you're relatively free from junk mail, and the next week you can't seem to get rid of the stuff? Chances are you've opened an obsessive spammer's email and been added to their 'active users' list.

The minute you open a junk mail, SPAM marketers know your address is live and active. Your email address will be flagged and you can become the target of many future attacks.

Using the same technique we can validate email addresses to clean and maintain your email marketing database. By keeping your list up-to-date you will save money on wasted sends and refine your mails to a relevant target audience.

Getting to know you

Ensuring you send to an active database is the most important rule in email marketing. After that, profiling your database makes it considerably more valuable.

Just as email-opens pinpoint an active database, the activities a user performs upon opening their email further defines their behaviour. By documenting these activities, then producing and analysing reports, you can continuously refine future campaigns and become increasingly more effective in your target marketing.

Connectors are they key

A key behaviour to profile is that of the 'connector' (in marketing terms, a person at the centre of a large network of people, who can influence behaviour).

Due to their large circle of relationships, a connector plays a vital role in the success of viral email campaigns. They are much more likely to forward emails, and will forward them to a wide network of disparate people. Through them your information will be distributed amongst the population.

If you notice from your reports that certain people consistently forward your emails to a large number of referrals, these people are likely to be connectors. You want to give these guys more marketing information since they distribute it and therefore increase the reach of your campaigns.

As good as it gets

Well there are three of the most useful things a spammer has offered me in a while. We use them to plan your email marketing strategies, with great success. Now, if you'll just excuse me... I need to go change my email address.

Fred Schebesta

To talk more about developing an email management program or online marketing strategy, contact Fred Schebesta at fred@freestylemedia.com.au
Ph) 02) 9818 7300 / Mob) 0402 094 430