The trade journals, as well as mainstream news media, have frequent reports on how advertising doesn’t work, and how people believe they are unaffected by it. Both are fantasy, as you will prove. Email marketing is advertising, simple and, hopefully, pure. It works, or else you would not sell. 

Facebook adverts, we are told time and again, don’t give a decent return on investment, and to prove it, 67% of advertisers say so. Is it possible all are wrong? It makes you wonder if this is the same group that reckons email marketing is dead, or at least not very well.

I can’t help but wonder if those who don’t get an ROI on their Facebook adverts haven’t bothered to target them. All I can use to support this contention is that in our speciality, those who don’t use their email marketing lists to target their advertising would probably say something similar. 

To put it another, and probably more irritating, way is that adverts used to support an email marketing campaign should not be put just anywhere convenient to you, the slot picked because it fell comfortably within your budget. You need to put them where they will be seen by your target audience.

If we accept that an increasing number of people in your target audience have lost faith in advertising, and I accept it is a questionable premise, what can you do about it? The simple answer, and one that works even if the premise is wrong, is to build trust. There are a number of simple steps you can take.

1/ Be Trustworthy

It’s obvious really, so it is a surprise how many companies will use trickery, even on those on their email marketing lists. If your campaigns are honest, clear as to conditions and especially price, customers will come to accept that they don’t have to second-guess you. 

2/ Generate Honest Reviews

It would appear that customers believe reviews ‘more than adverts’, yet a review is, quite clearly, advertising for your product. Encourage feedback, be overt with it. That way, customers will believe most of them.

3/ Engage

I research advertising. I know some of the tricks. I know enough to know advertising affects me. One method which I’m a sucker for is when a company asks me for my opinion. I’ve recently been asked if I’d had any difficulties with a particular product. I had, and I told them so, and they came up with a simple work-around. I felt they were on ‘my’ side. 

4/ Gently Does It

Don’t be pushy. Let customers work out for themselves that it is a must have. Show the benefits, rather than forcing them down a customer’s throat. Use a countdown clock with a certain discretion. No one likes being rushed. 

You’ve already captured those on your email marketing lists. Trying to wring every last penny out of them might not be the most effective way to go. Work towards them believing what you say, but gently. Be trustworthy and you are more than halfway there.