What is email marketing? What is VKontakte newsletter? What is bulk email?

Surely you have more than once received so-called “letters of happiness” from Internet operators, providers or electronic stores. In most cases, you immediately disposed of them, set up antispam and disowned them in every possible way. To the question of what a newsletter is, everyone will answer differently, but hardly positively. Thus, the simplest and affordable way advertising has turned into an annoying woodpecker that “hits the top of the head” of a potential consumer. A logical question arises: “How to disable the newsletter?”

What do we see?

Try not checking your email for a couple of weeks. It doesn’t matter whether you use the Internet for correspondence or write letters by hand the old fashioned way. Within a week, your real mailbox will begin to swell with all kinds of leaflets, advertising brochures, free newspapers and discount coupons. But if a regular mailbox has a limit, then the virtual analogue can be “cluttered” almost forever. Over a week, more than a hundred letters will accumulate there, and only a couple or three will be truly important and interesting to you. But the rest of the contents of the box answer the question of what a newsletter is. These are letters with the same information sent to a large number of users at the same time. Sometimes they actually contain relevant information. For example, information about the new tariff mobile communications, a sale at the store around the corner or an upcoming water outage. But, in fact, the newsletter does not give you the necessary information, and therefore you can easily do without it. If you suddenly feel the urge to change the tariff, then you will do it yourself, without intrusive prompting from the outside.

Why do they come?

Why do these unnecessary letters keep coming? The principle of a newspaper comes into play here, when you once subscribe, and issues keep coming and going to your address. They usually arrive once a week or a couple of times a month. Now imagine that you subscribe to a hundred newspapers and magazines at once! You can really go crazy with such an abundance of income. In this case, the author of the mailing list has an easier job than the editor of the newspaper, because he only needs to upload one letter into a special program, which itself will send it to a thousand addresses. That's what mailing is. In fact, this is real spam. But receiving mailings is voluntary. So why do letters arrive without your expressed consent?

In fact, you may not remember how you agreed. Perhaps you filled out a form at a lingerie store discount card and put a tick in the appropriate box. Or maybe they once attended an original cuisine seminar and gave their contacts there in the hope of getting a free frying pan. In the simplest case, you may be searching for information on the Internet and want to receive updates from the site. After such consent, a letter will be sent to your email inbox, which you need to respond to, thereby confirming your desire to receive the newsletter. And voila, your mailbox has been added to the list of site subscribers. Fresh materials will flow like a river to all addresses on the list.

Subscription "for candy"

Marketers have long understood that a person is more willing to make contact if you promise him a gift. Let it be a candy, a book or a short video course. You are asked to indicate the address to which the gift will arrive. Here you are in the site database. Now you are protected from spam mailing. The user’s interest is obvious, but the author is not left with nothing. It is beneficial for him that there are more subscribers, accordingly, the number of visits increases, and the life of the forum becomes livelier. If a person visits the site once, he can return and at the same time buy something. It seems like everyone wins. But this does not take into account the fact that the newsletter does not always offer what is really interesting to the consumer, but frequent letters can be annoying.

They asked

Questions are especially often asked by people of the older generation, who are accustomed to thinking that a letter should contain important information. It is difficult for them to understand what a newsletter is, and difficulties with the term lead to difficulties with consequences. For example, is it paid? Yes, there are paid options, but don't panic. The money will not be written off if you simply click the "subscribe" button. However, the resource will be incomplete for the user, since some videos or books cannot be viewed until you make a payment. To do this, you will need to send an SMS or transfer money from a card. Think for yourself whether you need such a service.

Is the mailing secure? In general, yes, since its author can only transfer your address to another spammer. This is the maximum evil action that can be committed. But this happens very rarely, because there is no point in the authors of newsletters losing a potential client.

And here is a logical question: “How to get only the information that is interesting to you?” Alas, no way. The author acts as the first critic and selects those materials that are interesting to the majority.

Main question

What to do if you're completely fed up with spam mailings? How can I cancel it? To the great joy of many Internet users, any mailing can be disabled, and the algorithm of actions is similar regardless of the device used. Each letter sent to your address contains a special link asking you to remove your address from the subscriber database. If you click it, the information from the author will no longer bother you. Usually such a link is at the very bottom of the letter. But there are also unscrupulous authors who seek to deprive the consumer of his legal opportunity to remain in the dark. But in such cases, the email sites themselves help you. At the very top of the letter there is a button “unsubscribe” or “add to spam”. With one click you can remove yourself from the author’s database or send him to the blacklist.

Write me sms

It happens that you are really waiting for a treasured SMS from your loved one, counting the minutes, and here it is - the beep of the phone. But, alas, there is SMS messaging. At such moments you want to smash your phone against the wall. It’s especially unpleasant when information comes in that is absolutely unnecessary for your life. For example, advertising new sanitary pads that are sold only in a supermarket on the outskirts of the city, where you once stopped for water. Unwanted SMS messages are becoming a real problem for many phone users. Messages arrive every day, and their number is growing every year. And it is extremely difficult to stop such an SMS attack without outside help. It won't be as easy as with a computer. And the problem is not always solved through the operator. However, you can still unsubscribe. If no one coordinated the mailing with you, then this is a direct violation of the law, and the author may receive a substantial fine. That is, you have the right to write a statement to the Federal Antimonopoly Service indicating a violation of the Law “On Advertising”. But you can do it even simpler, using the weapons of mailing list authors. There is a service called “No SMS”, which allows you to unsubscribe from annoying advertising for free. You will need to fill out a form and submit your application. It’s even easier on a smartphone, because you can install a free antivirus with the function of detecting phishing and malicious messages.

There are parallels

There are some things in common between phone and email newsletters. In both cases, your nerves may suffer from your own forgetfulness or neglect of your means of communication. Most spam ends up in your inbox by choice. And with it comes all kinds of viruses. If it is difficult for you to suddenly change your attitude towards all sorts of new products, interesting offers or trial copies, then you will have to learn over time. By the way, this is how a spam filter and SMS blocker work. For phones, this is a highly specialized application that blocks unknown or advertising mailings. The same filter helps clean email newsletters. All blocked messages are sent to a separate folder, where you can deal with them later: delete or “pardon”, that is, return to the “Inbox” folder.

In general, you need to learn to treat your messengers with care. Use spam filters to send emails to avoid filling your inboxes with spam. Don't forget to unsubscribe from mailings that you no longer need.

For example

Recently, more and more Internet users have been complaining that Yandex newsletters are annoying. Two-thirds of your mailbox ends up filled with all sorts of promotional offers. Regular cleaning doesn't help. What to do? Maybe you should get rid of mailings once and for all? So, go to the post office. On the main page on the left side you will see all the information about messages and your correspondence. Find a small image of a paperclip. This is the designation for emails with attachments. And right above the paperclip there is the inscription “Customize”. Activate. A menu of available services will open on the left side. Among all the sections there will be one with the name “Mail Processing Rules”. In this tab you can work with the addresses from which mailings are sent. If you don’t need them, then feel free to send everything to the blacklist. After this step, all new emails will go straight to the trash, without cluttering your inbox. You can go the same way if you are tired of information from other sites or letters from some people.

There is a second way to unsubscribe from Yandex mailing lists. To do this, go to your mail and open the newsletter message. Now click the "Unsubscribe" tab. This method, of course, is simpler than others, but it involves repeated operations.

I have contact

Perhaps one of the simplest action algorithms requires sending out to VK. It is never imposed here, except in cases where your account has been hacked. In all other cases, mailing to VK occurs automatically, since at one time you yourself wrote messages to groups or subscribed to alerts. If the information you receive is no longer relevant, you can unsubscribe. To do this, in the dialog box with the group, find three dots in the upper left corner. The Ban Messages tab will appear. Activate it and enjoy the absence of spam.

What kind of program?

The three most popular mailing programs include GetResponse, a service with very rich functionality. Here you can set up complex email chains, conduct tests, and personalize emails. The service is easy to learn; there is a mailing template and technical support in Russian. True, 100% deliverability is not guaranteed here either. You are given a month to try out. One of the downsides is the price. It is indicated in dollars and fluctuates absolutely inexplicably.

The second most popular is " Pechkin-mail.ru" is a domestic service, very easy to learn and with a lot of templates. You can send 500 letters a day, and a database of up to 100 subscribers is stored for free. The prices are very, very affordable.

However, technical support leaves much to be desired, since you can only contact via emails. But the knowledge base is excellent.

Optimal choice

The third most popular, but optimal in terms of parameters, mailing program is MaestroMail. It is much more profitable to pay for the number of letters. So, if you are planning to launch a newsletter from your website, then you can start with this program. They also do not guarantee 100% deliverability, but they do offer a user-friendly interface, prompt response from technical support and expanded service functionality.

Let's get straight to the point...

What is a newsletter

Types of mailings

You, like any other Internet user, have your own email address. And periodically you receive letters in your mailbox. Of course, letters from friends do not count as mailing lists.

But I’m sure that you have received letters from online stores where you once bought something and when purchasing, you entered and confirmed your email address. Thus, you have given your consent to receive information in your mailbox. These mailings are called informational.

There are also mailings copyright. For example, by going to this address, you can subscribe to my newsletter and in the first letter you will receive for free e-book. And in the future you will receive letters on the topic of making money online.

Another type of mailing is spam. Illegal mass mailing of letters to email addresses obtained from public access.

Internet mailing services

To make mailing easier, there are many specialized services on the Internet. Thanks to them, anyone can create their own mailing list and send thousands of letters at the same time. Another question is how to collect your own subscriber base. But we’ll talk about this in other articles...

The most popular Russian-language email newsletter service in RuNet is Justclick

True, Justclick has long been paid and costs about a thousand rubles per month. But this service, in addition to newsletters, also has other useful functionality.

For example, there you can organize your affiliate program. It is possible to set up accepting payments through the service, but only if you are registered as an individual entrepreneur or LLC.

The service also has the functions of auto webinars and auto trainings. You will not find this functionality in other mailing services.

Some foreign services I can recommend: Unisender And Mailchimp.

In essence, this tool is a mailing of various
material on behalf of the community in the user’s personal messages.

This instrument can well be called an echo that
were so popular in the 2010s. Also by its structure, this tool
very close to .

This tool can be used in absolutely any field, because... he is very
flexible and versatile.

How to start using this tool?

We will take the simple route so that you can start using it already in
soon.

1. First you need to install (application) “Newsletters”
messages" to your page (group).

This is done through community management.

1.1. Go to "Management".

1.2. After you go to “Management”, you are taken to “Settings”
pages (communities). Next, you need to go to the “Applications” section.

1.3. In the window that appears, select “Go to directory.”

1.4. After you have gone to the “Application Catalog”, you need to find
“Message mailings” and click the “Add” button.

1.6. After you add the widget, you will be notified that the widget was successful
installed.

1.7. After you have gone to the installed widget, go to
"Settings".

1.8. In the window that appears, you are asked to create your first “List”, where
will gather users who want to subscribe to your newsletter.
Click the “Create” button.

1.9. In the pop-up window you need to assign a name and write a description for your
first list.

Also, you need to check the box “Collect subscribers in this
list" and click the "Save" button.

2.1. After you have created your first list, you will be presented with a window with
lists.

In this window you will need to write the text in the “Message” section that
You want to send to your subscribers.

Afterwards, click on the “Test” button to send a test message yourself
to yourself.

2.3. After you have received a test message and you are satisfied with it,
then you can move on to mass mailing, for this you need to select
“Maillist”, check the box indicating that you have checked the test message and
select the time of sending – “Send now” or specify the time.

Our clients are our inspiration!

“I am extremely glad to read your useful articles (response to the content newsletter). They are very relevant and bring clarity to the overall development of the online store. Thank you for that!
I would like to ask you to make some instructions on the topic of mailings (email). I really like the way you arrange everything. What kind of content are you writing? Thank you!"

When they ask us, it is simply impossible to refuse. Can you tell that we rewatched the movie “Always Say Yes”? It’s not at all like that, it’s just that the client’s desire and request are the law for us, and so is the company’s mission. Therefore, we will be happy to publish not just one article, but a whole series of articles on how to work with mailings. Let's start with the basics and talk about what mailings are, what they are, who to write to and how often. In short, a little theory, which is simply a must-have.

1. Who should I write to?

As they said in the movie “Election Day”: “ You can vote for anyone. But why for anyone, when we have our own, one might say, hereditary military, great-nephew of the living repressed Marshals Blucher and Tukhachevsky, Igor Vladimirovich..." Hence the moral: you should write newsletters only to your own, family, and beloved clients. Well, or not yet clients, but people who are going to become them.

As I already wrote above, the base is your clients or those who are going to become them. The conclusion follows: we collect a database of people who know something about you, have heard of you, work with you (order/buy) or want to know something about you. And the key word here is “know” in all its conjugations and inclinations.

And once again about the base in a little more detail:

Attention, question: how to get a mailing list?

The question is correct and appropriate. Collecting a database is quite labor-intensive work. It will require creativity and patience from you. I’ll tell you about several ways to form a base. In order not to limit your flight of fancy, I’ll clarify that this is not the entire list of paths and you can come up with much more.

In general, there are a lot of options, here I only went through the standard ones. I am sure that you will be able to come up with a lot of ways to get your client to contact you and allow you to send him letters.

Give your word that you will never use purchased or stolen cold base. =)

By the way, a few more words need to be said about the cold base.

Cold base, or why is it inconvenient to work in a refrigerator?

Cold email base - what is it like? cold call, only worse. A ton of effort and time is wasted, and productivity tends to zero. Even sometimes into the area with a minus sign. And if specifically, what is bad about a cold base?

As a digression, I’ll say that most often people come to us to write newsletters with a cold base. They ask for a newsletter to tell about the company and sell. “But we haven’t written anything to clients yet. And in general, these are not exactly our clients; it seems that we found their contacts on the Internet.” Yes, that's absolutely real story and, unfortunately, not rare. But let's get back to the cold base and its disadvantages.

1. Cold base requires “preparation” before making a purchase. And by the way, maybe the client will never prepare for this purchase, because he will never open your letters. What for? You are spam, which he did not subscribe to.
2. Composing a letter to a cold database is much more difficult. Even if a person opens it, you must first tell who you are, and thereby intrigue the reader so that he will be inspired and look at the letter at least diagonally. Now answer yourself honestly: do you fully read letters from familiar companies, but from unfamiliar ones?

   I’ll answer for you: naturally not. Standard scheme: skim, if something is interesting, read a little more carefully into a separate paragraph. Do you think your messages will be any different? Don’t flatter yourself, people won’t invent anything new specifically for reading your letter. And it will be even greater luck if it is opened at all! Especially when they didn't expect to receive anything.

3. The benefits of sending to a cold base are much lower. This is no longer about reading, but about money. In any case, you spend your time on the mailing list (let’s assume that you have a mailer for which you don’t pay anything, you know how to layout and draw yourself, and you write the texts yourself). But your time is also money!

I will provide data on the general average statistical indicators of mailings, and then draw your own conclusions.

So, brief information on the research results marketing agency HubSpot (11K active base). For the B2C sector, with regular sending of letters (about 16-30 per month), the open rate was a maximum of about 35% (please note that the offers are personal and the base is segmented), and the CTR is a maximum of 5.6%. This isn’t even about conversion at all. Just opened the letters and clicked on the links in them. And let me remind you once again that the base is warm, active, and they write to people regularly!

Now let’s imagine that if you have an active database of about 3,000 people, then according to the most ideal forecasts, about 900 people (30%) will open the letter, and 50 (5.6%) will click on the links in it. Well, let’s take a fairly high conversion of the landing page - 5%, it turns out that 2 people out of 3000 will complete the target. What if it was an inactive base?

In our company, we do not have statistics on email open rates (open rate) and link clicks (CTR) for the cold database, because we have never used such techniques.

But you can guess. I’ll show you the results that are shared on forums about mailing from an inactive database. I saw, let's say, messages like these.

Well, let's recalculate with a conversion rate of 0.03%? Do you like the result?

Hence the moral

Now I will try to say it as gently but accessible as possible. It’s pointless to hope that having bought or bought an unknown database, “like” your target, and written them one single letter (it’s hard to call this a mailing) with an offer to receive a 5% discount on the second order when purchasing over 15,000 rubles. .

Here at least +100500 times there will be a cool copywriter, the result will make you want to cry. And the copywriter will cry while working, twisting his arms along with his brain, figuring out how to make a content bomb out of this, frankly, mediocre promotion that will bring at least one order.

And yes: I didn’t say just now that such actions are not needed. It just all depends on various factors, for example, on the type of mailing and the period of your communication with the client. It's like going on a date with a guy. Let's say you can have sex, but talking about marriage and children is taboo. He will definitely agree to the first, but after the second he will run away.

But we will talk in detail about how to work with the subscription base in other articles from the “About Mailing” series, and now I want to talk about such an important point as the types of letters.

2. Types of letters for distribution

All letters can be divided into several types. This division is based on the goals you are pursuing in writing and the results you want to get out of it.

It is clear that ultimately everyone wants to sell, receive orders and increase profits from the mailing list, but this is a kind of common goal, like any business - because it commercial activity, there can be nothing else there. But there are also smaller, specific goals that each type of letter has.

Now I’ll give you a small classification by purpose, then we’ll talk in more detail.

It can't be said that newsletters- this is a real must-have, and the promotional ones are fu-fu-fu. Naturally, there is no such division. The choice of letter depends on the stage of your relationship with the client. In other words, your mailing strategic plan should include several types of letters. For every case of relationship.

What else is important to know about types of letters?

Based on the frequency of sending letters, they can be divided into regular and one-time ones.

a. Regular emails are sent continuously at a certain frequency, for example, once a week, month, quarter, etc. Such letters include, for example, informational and promotional letters.

b. One-time letters are written for a specific event and are sent only once. For example, announcement letters.

1. In terms of automation, mailing letters can be divided into those sent using a template or universal (trigger, welcome letters) and individual ones, which are written specifically for an informational occasion (promotional mailings).

As I already wrote above, strategic plan Each company should include several types of letters, for any occasion.

Welcome letters- a type of trigger letter. This is the first message a new subscriber to the company should receive. There is no need for every new person in the subscription database to reinvent the wheel with an individual letter thanking them for leaving their mailing address. Such a letter may well be template. Its task is to thank the person for joining the ranks of the company’s subscribers and give useful information, or whatever you promised to send him in exchange for mail, tell him about further cooperation.

A welcome letter can be made in the form of a series of letters (while the person is still warm, remembers about your company and is ready to open your messages). The point is that in your first letter you tell about who you are and what you do. How to introduce a person to the company, tell them something useful and smoothly lead them to take the target action. Indeed, at the very beginning, especially after receiving a pleasant bonus, a person is loyal to the company and the newsletter, opens the letters and follows the links in them. Statistics show (according to Experian Information Solutions, Inc.) that the open rate of welcome letters is 5 times higher than regular ones from the mailing list, and the click-through rate on links is 4 times higher.

1. Promotional letters- letters with goodies from your company. Their task is to sell a lot and quickly. It is impossible to make such letters templates. Even if you have the same stock, which is unlikely. For every occasion you will have to write something special and unique. In promotional letters, we advise you to use as little text as possible, but cover all the main points. Brief introduction, description of conditions and call to action.
2. Information letters- letters that tell something about your company, provide useful information to clients, and increase their level of trust in you. They also cannot be made templates; each letter will have to be written according to the occasion. Our newsletters are presented in the form of a content newsletter, which we send on Wednesdays, newsletter(sent once every two weeks on Mondays) and also in the form of a newsletter announcing training events (webinars, courses, trainings, etc., sent 1-3 times a month on Fridays).
3. Trigger emails- these are messages that a person receives in response to any actions or inactions on the site. For example, if you added an item to your cart and did not pay for it, after 1-7 days you can be reminded about the “abandoned cart”.

This section also includes reactivation letters, when you need to remind a person about yourself. As a rule, such letters are shocking. And in ordinary life, they would never be sent to a client, but here the task is to pull a person out of his usual environment, to force him to open the letter.

By the way, when I first started my internship at 1PS, the first letter that was shown to me as an example was a reactivation letter. The topic sounded something like this: “I don’t understand, are you dead?” To say that I was shocked is to say nothing. I thought I would never write something like this to clients. This is terrible! But after about 1.5 years, our company sent a letter with a similar title and content to what we thought was a “dead” database. I’ll tell you more about him and about the 1,500,000 rubles that we had to donate in the end in the following articles, when we sort it out specific examples, and now I’ll note a few points about the reactivation letter:

• A letter like this must be truly shocking.
• The letter can only be sent to those subscribers whom you consider to be “dead” (there has been no activity from them for a long time).
• In order for people to want to return to you, the letter must contain cool goodies. By the way, a 5% discount is not cool at all. And 10% too. On this occasion, there is no need to bother the client’s nerves at all with a shocking reactivation letter.

So, we seem to have sorted out the species. We can say that this is the minimum that is suitable for drawing up a mailing strategy for any company. It will look something like this: first send welcome letter, then connect regular information and promotional mailings, send trigger messages, depending on the client’s actions. If there is no reaction to messages for six months or a year or more, you launch a reactivation letter, after which you either remove the client from the database (if everything is consistently deaf), or continue to send him informational and promotional mailings after renewing the relationship with a reactivation letter.

A few more important little things!

Little things don’t seem to solve anything, but little things can create a general negative impression of the company. Therefore, some things still need to be controlled. Well, as a seed for the next articles. =)

1. General style. All company letters must be in the same style as the business. It’s strange if in your brand book your corporate color is blue, but you send mailings in pink with green polka dots.
2. Signature. Letters, naturally, must be signed; there is no need to write them today from Masha, tomorrow from Petya, and on Thursday from Semyon Petrovich. Take the name of a real employee (who writes most of the newsletters) or come up with an author to sign up with. Remember that it is more pleasant and easier to communicate with a person, even if he is fictitious, than with the faceless company Romashka LLC.
3. Appeal. To you or to you to clients - it’s up to you, but it should be the same in all letters!
4. Meet deadlines. If you decide that the mailing is regular, this means that it is sent not just often, but with a certain frequency. For example, once a week on Wednesdays or the 20th of every month. Like magazines, they come out at the same time. Customers will get used to it and will wait for your messages. As he wisely said in “ The Little Prince"The fox, turning to the prince: “It’s better to always come at the same hour...” This is how you send your letters to clients.
5. Efficiency. Evaluate the results of your emails. This is necessary in order to understand how profitable the message worked, as well as to adjust your strategy to the maximum extent possible. favorable direction work.

For opening remarks, I think that's enough. Moreover, about everything important points we talked today. In the next article you will learn about the structure of letters, what elements should be there, how to implement them, etc. And also, with great pleasure I will show examples from our lives and talk about their effectiveness.