Medl’s Spam Emails & What Not to Do in Email Marketing

The new company’s marketing plan doesn't work & here is why.

E-mail marketing has for a long time been a neglected form of digital advertising in the Caribbean. This is due to a lack of proper and effective practices from businesses and spam fatigue for customers. A recent example of this, is the new prescription delivery & medication management app known as Medl.

While the company has invested in other forms of advertising such as Facebook ads and Newspaper ads, it has opted for sending emails and texts to customers who never signed up for their listings. There are many issues with this.

So, let’s take a deeper look:

1. E-mail marketing is actually one of the most effective forms of digital marketing

Email marketing has one of the highest returns on investments in digital advertising. DMA reports that for every £1 spent on email marketing, companies can make an average return of £42. This is due to the fact that it is not as intrusive as other forms of digital advertising since the customer has willingly signed up to receive the emails.

Not only does email marketing allow a business to speak to already interested consumers, but it also allows them to reach their consumers where they spend A LOT of time online: their email inbox.

2. It’s only effective when done well

Businesses, however, won’t achieve the benefits of email marketing if they don’t do it properly. This is where Medl comes in. The company has sent mass emails and texts to people who did not sign up to be on their email or text list.

Rule #1 to doing email marketing right, don’t SPAM people. The reason their email marketing won’t work is because it’s the opposite of why email marketing is effective. Receiving unauthorized emails feels invasive and many times despite the value of the information in the email, people will quickly unsubscribe to ensure they stop getting emails they never signed up for. Especially, if they think it’s hackers or spam.

3. Sending spam emails is not only unethical but it is also illegal in most countries

Many Caribbean islands are still forming their digital laws, however, in most countries around the world customers have to give some form of consent to receive emails. In Europe, it is the GDPR, in the US it is CAN-SPAM, in Canada it is the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation.

All of these entities monitor and charge any business both inside and outside of their countries that violate their legislation on email marketing practices. In the digital age where data and customer information is incredibly valuable, data breaches like sourcing an unauthorized email list is an illegal act.

Not only is it unethical but it has no benefit to the company or consumer. Should Medl have waited to create an email list with willing customers they may have been able to see what a valuable medium email marketing is.

For now, though, they will just keep getting moved to spam.

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