Delivering Your Content: How to Make Sure It Reaches Your Clients

Business managers spend a lot of time creating content and then send it out to the world. And then … nothing. No one comments on your Facebook post. No one replies to your email or clicks through to your website.

What happened? Many things can go wrong with delivering content to your potential and current customers. We recently talked about seven ways to deliver your marketing message. Now, let’s look at how you can make sure those deliveries arrive as planned.

Email - Email remains one of the most effective ways to reach your customers. Studies show consumers prefer this method of contact from brands and companies. However, email comes with restrictions.

• Spam - If you aren’t getting any clicks on links in your emails, your messages might be ending up in people’s spam folders. If you bought an email list, your emails are almost certainly going to end up marked “spam.” Some other ways to get marked as spam include:
  • Someone marked you that way because he or she forgot about signing up.
  • Your IP address was used to send spam messages.
  • Your subject line is deceptive.
  • You don’t have your name or a real email listed as the “from.”
  • Your message does not contain an “unsubscribe” link. (Though most email software programs won’t even let you send without it.)
  • Your email only contains images with no words.
  • You used spam trigger words such as “guarantee,” “risk-free,” “debt,” “winner” or one of many others.
• Server Limitations - You may struggle to send email to customers due to server limitations. If you are trying to send hundreds of emails through your regular email program, such as Outlook or Gmail, you’re going to experience problems. Switch to an email marketing program such as MailChimp (free) to avoid this.
• GDPR - You may have heard these initials and wonder what the heck. This new European Union law has a lot of restrictions about emails, more than the CAN-Spam act we follow here in the U.S. If you’re sending email to EU citizens, you should follow the GDPR. While a similar law is not an issue here, most experts expect such restrictions down the road. Many large companies are adhering to some of the GDPR now as a way to be safe and prepare. Learn more about the GDPR and how you can follow it.

Social Media - Delivering social media messages is relatively easy, but if you use a scheduling program such Buffer or Hootsuite, you should do a spot check once in awhile to make sure posts are showing up — and that they look presentable. Remember, if you schedule a LinkedIn post on Hootsuite, only add one photo. Use a link shortener for FB to make URLs look prettier.

Ad Campaign - If your ad campaign isn’t getting any clicks, the message isn’t resonating, or you’ve targeted the wrong audience. (Or both!) Go back to the drawing board, make sure you’ve conducted research, and make some adjustments.

Questions about delivering your message? Contact us for a free consultation.