A good marketing opportunity wasted

When you start a company in Finland you can be sure of two things: you will start receiving a lot of bills from places you never knew existed, and you will get spam.

Businesses are required to submit information to the National Board of Patents and Registrations (that’s a long name) which, in turn, makes that information public on www.ytj.fi. They list, among other things, your email and your company’s web address. They try to prevent spam by only using images when displaying email addresses.

Still, you can access all that information in a very easy manner (so easy that you can send spam to newly-registered companies) via providers like www.finder.fi. It will cost you, but you will have a complete database of companies registered in Finland and their contact information. Can you guess where this is going?

Many companies choose to use that information to send spam to newly-registered companies. How do I know that I have been spammed via that register? When I was filing my registration papers for LumoLink, I used an email address that I created especially for this purpose. I have never used or displayed that email anywhere else.

Now let’s look at some of the spam I got, and analyse what they could have done better.

First is China Calling (also known as S-P Suunnittele ja Paina), who sent me an email offering really high-quality and cheap business cards because I had just started my business and all that. How could they have made their offer better? Well, for one thing, why not offer me free business cards? I bet that would get my attention. Also, they might have gone even further and offered me the whole marketing package: website, logo and business cards. If they couldn’t do all that themselves, they could have used partners to get the job done. Why stop there, though? They could have created a few versions of a logo for my company and attached that. Imagine opening an email and seeing a few versions of a logo that somebody had created for you, and an offer of free business cards. That would definitely have been worthy of my attention, compared to the usual ”BUY, BUY NOW!” spam that we’re so used to.

Another company that knows how to use the register and is not afraid to use it is Suomen Talousverkko, who sent me an offer for accounting services (starting from €89 per month, no less). What could this company have done differently? Well, how about creating a 10-page guide to accounting for new entrepreneurs, and attaching it to their email? To add a personal touch, their email could have spoken not just about what they offer, but could have invited me to their office for a cup of coffee and a free consultation. If they were offering that, I would definitely meet them, even if I had an accountant already. Suomen Talousverkko is a large company with offices in all major cities; they could definitely afford to expend some resources on creating a 10-page guide and offering free consultations.

Here is an example of somebody who did do it right. I received a phone call from Alyssa Kelander, who works for Etera Mutual Pension Insurance Company, offering me pension insurance. When I told her I already had it covered, she continued talking to me, explaining some of the nuances that I didn’t know about. She gave me a lot of valuable information, even though she knew that I wouldn’t become her customer. What amazes me even more is that she followed it up with an email containing interesting links, answering questions I had asked her during our conversation.

Now try to guess which of these three companies I would choose to do business with in the future!

Anyway, what I am trying to say is: make sure you offer some value to a receiving party when you approach them for the first time. Buying registration information is alright if you provide value to each client you contact. Otherwise, say hello to my spam box; don’t worry, you won’t be lonely in there.