It’s not news to say that the effectiveness of e-mail marketing has been battered over the past few years. However, there seems to be a perception that if someone opts-in for your messages then you’re good to go.
Not so, according to a recent report by eMarketer. Apparently, 21 percent of opt-in addresses get filtered into spam folders.
It can add up to a ton of people considering the size of your list. Think about the number of e-mails Monster sends daily that may not even be reaching their intended targets. Your Monster postings aren’t getting in front of as many prospects as you might think.
If you’re a Jobster client, how many of your broadcast messages aren’t getting through to the intended target? Certainly something to think about if Jobster doesn’t currently address the issue.
I’m not against e-mail marketing, but I don’t see it as the pinnacle of marketing strategies either. It’s a piece. Clearly, the way to go is RSS. Marketing is progressively about putting your customers in control, and RSS does just that.
If you still rely heavily on e-mail marketing, make sure you know exactly what you’re getting. If you’re not utilizing RSS in your business, it’s not too late to start.
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October 17th, 2005 at 11:51 am
Joel-
Great post………..I think what you get and most people don’t is the ASSUMPTIONS that folks build into there products.
Job boards have been doing it for years….faster, better, more crap…limited screening…….but then why don’t companies develop their own screening tools to weed folks out that are a clear “non” fit.
As to Jobster and this grand idea of email minusha……I bet most folks will opt out after they start getting whacked with emails from agencies phishing away…..and others looking to refer them……I love the referal idea, but think trying to blow it up, breaks it down…..does anyone else get that?
I LOVE the concept of target marketing to folks that have expressed an interest and that your staff has qualified as a potential fit. Don’t just email them jobs…..isn’t that what everyone does?
Start a repore and relationship on the value of working there and experiences that existing employees share.
It seems that everyday…….all we here about is postings……Jobster agrregating, Monster streamlining posting applies….Craig limiting……
How about we get someone to address the relationship with potential candidates beyond postings?
October 17th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Good post Joel. What’s unique about Jobster is that we offer our clients a number of ways to target and manage relationships with top prospects. E-mail is just a small piece. RSS is involved too. CRM-like capabilities as well.
I should note that we are currently working with leading organizations to make sure that the mail gets delivered — i.e. when someone subscribes to hear about jobs at certain companies, that they actually get what they signed up for. We currently average well north of 40% click through on all jobster-powered messages, which i do believe is quite high vs. industry standards…which we believe has a lot to do with all jobster e-mail messages being sent person-to-person vs. company to person.
October 17th, 2005 at 7:05 pm
ERE has been delivering our online publications via email for years, and more recently via RSS too.
Neither is perfect.
Email deliverability is an issue. Corporate blacklists, inactive email accounts, automatic filters – all of these can thwart even the best-intentioned opt-in publisher or marketer.
RSS addresses all of these issues – so far. (I’m still waiting for the spam issue to get worse – its already a small problem in the blog search engines.) The problem is that most people have no clue what it is or how to use it.
RSS is a powerful tool, but so far only the early adopters are using it.
November 1st, 2005 at 6:01 pm
Email has put a direct-marketing-on-steroids tool in the hands of individuals and companies alike, and we all suffer from that as most people who use it lack professional direct marketing skills. (e.g. in direct marketing 101 you learn not to use your high yield lists in an indiscriminate way)
In recruiting industry terms professional direct marketers equate to professional “sourcers” / recruiters, and of course these pros only get involved in a fraction of all hiring situations. (because of costs and size of sourcer gene pool…)
Consequences of putting powerful web distribution tools in the hands of “lay persons” is not only resume spam from active job-seekers but also indiscriminate email marketing by recruiters seeking leads or applications. I share Joel and John Sumser’s concerns, and hence at H3.com we follow different paths than most other people: A. we discourage any broadcasting of opportunities and B. all emails seeking referrals or applications are not sent from our company mail server but from the “recruiter’s” personal email (ISP) directly to his / her known personal contacts.
Though this does help to avoid spam filters to highest possible degree, and protects ultimate privacy for all involved, it does not avoid recipients changing email addresses, their mail servers being down, nor indiscriminate “over-grazing” on the part of the some “recruiters”.
Hans Gieskes