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Bulk Email Marketing
© 2006 David Peterson
I'm only a businessman not a lawyer or
politician. I don't condemn or condone bulk Email
marketing.
This is what I know for a fact: People
hate advertising. It doesn't matter if it's a TV
commercial, a banner advertisement, a radio spot, a
billboard, or a single email advertisement - it doesn't matter what
medium is delivering the advertisement. Somebody somewhere
hates the ad.
Bulk Email Marketing has been given a
public black eye. Most of it is deserved. Millions upon
million of Viagra emails, weight loss
emails, or even worse,
"sexy hot girls next door"; emails have
literally stunned the
Email using public. This type of Email is called UCE
(Unsolicited Commercial Email).
Basically we are so tired of hitting
our delete button that Bulk email Marketing is quickly
loosing its effectiveness. On one of my own
sites the general
Email box is so filled with junk that I currently have over 1,900
emails that need to be deleted. Personally I don't
complain,
I just hit the "delete all" button.
I still believe that Bulk Email
Marketing can be a huge boost to your business. HOWEVER, that huge
boost can only be achieved if your email list is generated in
legitimate ways.
Legitimate ways means that if you just
purchased 1 million email names for $19.00 you are probably in
serious trouble. For starters you can probably expect your
website to be shut down in about 2 hours after sending
out your first bulk email marketing campaign. Hosting
companies do not mess around with people connected to "UCE"
(Unsolicited Commercial Email). Secondly the search engines
will probably drop your site due to SPAM complaints. Finally, some
very mean people will be calling your home. I mean very scary
and very mean people.
People are passionate about SPAM.
People who hate SPAM will find you. Beginners don't even think
about this point. There is a lot of information on the web. If
you SPAM you will be found.
Legitimate email means that the people
receiving your email are expecting to receive some mail from
you periodically. Legitimate means that the Email list is at least
"double opt-in." if not "triple opt-in." Also
the people who want to "Opt Out" of your list have an easy way to do
just that.
The good news is that all of the UCE
(SPAM) in the world is making Email marketing less cost
effective. Eventually the SPAM issue will be solved with a
postage type of delivery. This means that every email that you send
will cost you a few pennies. This will keep the mass SPAMMERS out
of your Email box. Or a less drastic method of enforcement
will be some type of "DO NOT SPAM" list that will
be placed in effect.
There is a 2003 "CAN SPAM"
Act that was produced from Congress. This is just the beginning. Expect a
few more as people try to get a handle on all of this
email.
What the above anti SPAM measures will
do is to make your email list that much more effective. In
other words people will look at the mail from people they know.
The email CPA (Cost Per Action /
Sale
) deals will become harder to come by, Yet those that you can get
will be much more effective as the UCE is eliminated.
I still like Email as a marketing
tool. However, your email list has to be legitimate or your
prospects will just hit the "delete all" button.
Check
you list before beginning a campaign. Ask to speak with
current customers using the list. Ask those customers what
percentage of
SPAM complaints that they are getting.
The bottom line is that your
advertising campaign should produce sales - not problems, or even worse
death threats. Put your money in an advertising campaign that
will produce. Pay attention to the list that you are purchasing.
If it looks to good to be true then it definitely is going to
come back and haunt you.
Sincerely,
David
Peterson
Author
of:
Been There - Done That
David
Peterson's Search Engine Optimization Guide
Please
send all correspondence to: questions@usreference.com
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