Email Marketing Batch and Blast – the Junk Food of Marketing

Today’s post is the final episode on email marketing with my special guest contributor Gary Vaynerchuk.

In the short YouTube video I’ve shared below.  (Take special note of the date when this was published).

Please Stop Automating Your Email Copy!

GaryVee – May 27, 2015

I’m referencing the date because of a more detailed recent article …

Why the Email Batch and Blast Practice Is an Addiction and How to End It – Target Marketing Magazine April 4, 2019.

As marketers maybe we are slow to learn the true meaning of being authentic, adding value to our subscribers life and businesses.

Now Four Years after Gary Vees video was published, the topic of Batch and Blast Email Marketing was a hot topic in the Only Influencers daily email conversation with leading email marketers from around the world.  This was the result of the Target Marketing Magazine article I’ve shared here.

Have a quick look at what always blunt and opinionated Gary Vaynerchuk has to say in this short (1:24 minutes) video.

Language WARNING.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    Can you just give me 30 seconds to get this off my chest once and for all. I got this email yesterday. I want you to look at it again because you didn’t catch it the first time. DRock, help them out and highlight the part that I’m going to focus on this time. Can we once and for all, in society in May, it’s almost June, 2015 once and for all make people realize sending bulk emails, bulk blast emails, especially in this situation where it says, “Your name here. Your name here.” Not to Gary. And by the way, all the misspellings, Gary Vaynerchukabeche. Bulk emails that are not actually addressed to me get deleted in a speed that is actually… The way I delete, the speed in which I delete an email that is clearly not for me is actually stunning.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    Once and for all, can this video please be a call to action to the marketing community that bulk blasting email, for people that didn’t sign up for shit, is the wrong move. And I ask anybody who’s watched this video to start replying to people with it, so they can hear me say, fuck you.

It seems that Gary Vaynerchuk may be talking about two topics, Batch and Blast, and Bulk Email.  However, the message is clear – Batch and Blast doesn’t work and is un-welcome as further explained in the following article clip.

“In email marketing, “Batch & Blast” is a common practice. But dare I say, it’s the junk food of marketing. We all know that the email batch and blast practice really isn’t good for anyone, but many marketers just can’t seem to wean themselves off of the practice.

The addiction level in some cases is as bad as that of an opioid, not some casual black bubbly water loaded with sugar. I’ve seen marketers who are so addicted to it, they blast emails to “everyone” on the list multiple times a day. With the same creative and offer,.seven days a week. If that’s not junk mail — yeah, I said that ultimate dirty word in 1:1 marketing — I don’t know what is.

The batch and blast practice is an addiction that will lead to list saturation and an unresponsive audience. Unless you have cheap and unlimited acquisition sources hidden somewhere, please cherish your customer base and do not bombard them as if they will be there forever for you to meet your email goals. Now, to wean off addiction, an organization may have to go through a 10-step process for alcoholics. Starting with the “recognition.” – Target Marketing Magazine – by Stephen H. Yu

BONUS ROUND

Tips for communicating with your audience in a way that doesn’t kill the connection because you’re being too persuasive?

Gary Vaynerchuk:    It’s less about asking me and more about doing it. Amy Porterfield, you know, Amy?

Amy Porterfield:    Hi. I’m Amy Porterfield. And I’ve got a question for you. So in your book, The Thank You Economy, you talk a lot about letting your audience decide if they want to get to know you more versus persuading them that they should. So when it comes to email marketing, what are some tips you have for communicating with your audience in a way that doesn’t kill the connection because you’re being too persuasive?

Gary Vaynerchuk:    That’s a good question. Email marketing’s a tricky one. I think, Amy, it’s funny you reference Thank You Economy. I think the answer to email marketing is found in my next book title, which is Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. I mean, think about all the email services you are signed up to and/or have been over the last three or four years as so many of you start to siphon off of being on email lists. So many of those email lists are in pure utility, right? They’re retail. They’re giving you deals. They’re very action oriented. Nobody in that spaced is throwing enough jabs. We at [Wine Library 00:01:13] aren’t. I still think I wanna take … I’m gonna use this to take my own advice. We need to start sending at least once or twice a month. It’s so hard ’cause you’re siphoned on the drug of sales, but you’ve gotta put out content.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    As a matter of fact, Steve, I want you to work with Brandon right now. I want to send an email with the last five stories we wrote on the site and I wanna send it out as just … with a title of like Reading for You Around the Wine World. Let’s play with that a little bit.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    So that. Instead of everyone being like “Here’s a deal 49.99, Game Boy, old school.” You need to start putting out the history of Nintendo. So more content. More content that kind of allows people to be less on the defense. Every email that comes in it’s like it’s at you, right?

Gary Vaynerchuk:    With content, that has no purpose other than to entertain or inform or bring utilitarian value to the user, you’re getting their guard down. You’re bringing them value, which opens them up so much more for the sale. I think that’s the way to go. I really do. And I think mixing the two is intriguing. I’m curious if what Steve and I are about to do with Wine Library lends itself to more content in the mix of the sale, and I don’t like blending jabs and right hooks, but I always like testing.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    A bunch of people asked me like “Gary, did you read Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook? These posts on Facebook and Instagram this weekend don’t feel native.” Well, maybe they are. By results of the way people responding to Facebook, maybe they’re very native. Maybe native changes because native does change. Always testing. Always testing. That’s it?

Amy Porterfield:    Yep.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    Great. That was a good show. I like that show.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    Question of the day. And actually lurkers, a lot of you came out this weekend. I need more of you.

To define a lurker to you if you do not know what I mean, it’s you’re a piece of crap. You watch a show. You take, take, take. I’m not charging you for it, and you’ve never commented, which is the only fuel and payback that I ask for, the only one. You just take it. You’re just a take … you know what? You’re not a lurker. You’re a taker. That feels even worse. You’re a goddamn taker. So please, if you’re a taker, jump in and leave a comment. Say “Hey, I’m enjoying the show.” “Hey, cool.” Or maybe answer the following question, which I think is interesting. What is your favorite email list that you’re on right now, not all time, right this second? Which email service is providing you the most value?

Gary Vaynerchuk:    You keep asking questions. I’ll keep answering them.

Gary Vaynerchuk:    Good tight …

In response the very blunt message from Gary Vaynerchuk above …

This is part three of my three part Gary Vaynerchuk vs email marketing series.

• JAB (part one) Should you buy an email list? – Gary Vaynerchuk
• JAB (part two) Is email marketing still relevant today? – Gary Vaynerchuk
• JAB (part three) Email Batch and Blast – the Junk Food of Marketing – Gary Vaynerchuk & Target Marketing Mag
• JAB (BONUS ROUND) – Gary Vaynerchuk with Amy Porterfield

RIGHT HOOK – Gary Vaynerchuk.  I’d love to revisit this topic with you as my special guest on the Real Marketing Real Fast Podcast #RMRF 🙂

*** NO More Lurking  ***

Mentioned in this post:

Only Influencers – The World’s Trusted Community for Email Marketers

Since 2010, OI has been an indispensable resource and a “curated community” for email marketing professionals. A broad mix of brand marketers, vendors, agencies, consultants, and thought leaders, each member is vetted and invited to join based on their background and qualifications. If you have a question that you need expert advice on and a quick answer, Only Influencers is your place

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Doug Morneau is an Author, Speaker, Podcaster, and Media Buyer – specializing in Email List Rental & Sponsored Email.

His first book “THREE BIG LIES – The Real Truth About Renting Email Lists to Generate Targeted Leads and Sales” became an International Best Seller.

As a podcaster, Doug currently hosts the “Real Marketing Real Fast” Podcast.  He interviews top marketers, industry experts, and SAS vendors.

He works as a Media Buyer, he has helped venture capital and investment banker clients raise in excess of $100 million dollars in the USA.  He does this by leveraging email marketing, renting/sponsoring third-party permission-based email lists, online PPC advertising, and paid influencer marketing.

This made him one of the nation’s largest media buyers of sponsored email and rented email lists.

In his spare time, you can find him in the CrossFit box, Olympic weightlifting, and chasing his grandsons around.

You can get more information about his best selling book.

Three Big Lies: The Real Truth about Renting Email Lists to Generate Targeted Leads and Sales