Tis the Season to Be Cleansing Those Databases and Maximising Your Outreach

2024/5 was rough. 2026 is a whole new year with renewed promise (we hope!?).

We can't afford to sit in the shadows.

So I, along with some of my clients, thought rather naively, I have a database and a CRM that can mass mail; I can just email what I want to who I want, with whatever I want, "spray and pray", include links to promote my website, include forms to gather loads of juicy data, see who reads, opens, clicks. Send it to enough people I'll get a hit.

Yeah, maybe in 2020, but it turns out that's a BIG FAT NO now! The internet has gotten wise and has an arsenal of rules that stop all of this.

If done wrong, this will not only waste a lot of time, effort, and money; it will also cause your emails to either not get delivered or go straight to spam.

Likely and far worse, your whole domain and 1-to-1 emails will be flagged and blacklisted, meaning no emails from or to anyone, which I have also learnt is not easily and immediately fixable.

So, nice story, John. Get to the point: HOW DO YOU AVOID THESE CALAMITIES AND MAXIMISE THE SUCCESS of any outreach/marketing campaigns?

Again, naively, I believed I could handle this issue alone, but following my own advice, I decided to consult and collaborate with professionals in this field.

Thankfully, two chaps I have the pleasure of knowing and working with; Pete Hogg (outreach tech setup & marketing expert) and Ben Fielding (email deliverability wizard), put me and my clients in the know and armed us with best-of-breed tools, methods and a means of execution that has spun up solutions swiftly and cost-effectively. So much so that I felt compelled to write this post, say thank you and share the story that I expect to resonate with many of you at this reflective and goal setting time of the year.

I have some other people on the data cleanse side, you know who you are, that are due a shout-out, but at the risk of getting blocked for spamming, I'll save that for next week.

I'd love to hear of anyone else's experiences or challenges. Doesn't have to be Outreach, I'm sure I know others or might even be able to help myself. A problem shared and all that.