E-Mail Marketing vs. Spam
A common practice in direct marketing has been to send printed material to a purchased list of names in the hopes that a significant percent of that group would be converted to customers. Why, then, is such a practice not acceptable with internet marketing?
A major reason that mass e-mail has such a negative image is that, unlike most forms of marketing, e-mail is very inexpensive for the sender and not so for the recipient. As early as 1996, AOL got a court injunction against Cyber Promotions for a mass mailing that bogged down AOL servers. Cyber Promotions was accused of sending 1.8 million messages per day to AOL users. According to the Spam.Abuse.net site, “Assuming that it takes the typical AOL user 10 seconds to identify and discard a message, that’s still 5000 hours per day of connect time spent discarding spam, just on AOL. By contrast, the spammer probably has a T1 line that costs him about $100/day.” (http://spam.abuse.net/overview/spambad.shtml)
To compare apples to apples, let’s assume that the 5000 hours of work spent deleting the junk e-mail was done by minimum wage workers. (This is highly unlikely.) That would mean that the recipients spent $25,750 worth of their time getting rid of the one day’s worth of 1996 junk e-mail that was received through AOL alone. This doesn’t count the cost of the server space, management time, and assorted other charges that were incurred in the process.
The AOL injunction and other related legislation has meant that eCommerce businesses had to develop more refined ways of marketing their wares. The result was that it became very important to get permission from people before e-mailing them.
Some help for eMarketers is provided at http://spam.abuse.net/ This group recommends that you include how you got the e-mail address with your mailing so that people are reminded why they are getting your e-mail. Of course, it’s also important to provide the means for feedback and a way to unsubscribe with each mailing.
The spam abuse site also suggests that you validate your subscribers by sending them an e-mail to which they respond if they really do want to join your list. This way you maintain the integrity of your list and make it a confirmed opt-in list.
Should you buy a general opt-in list and market to them? The spam abuse site likens this to buying a Nobel Prize. Though such lists are available, their value is questionable. People who signed up for these lists often have forgotten they have done so by the time they get the e-mail from you. Because of that, your e-mail often is perceived as an invasion of their privacy. By sending mail to an unvalidated list you can even end up on the MAPS Non-confirmed Mailing List (NML) database. “ These databases are used by a variety of companies and e-mail providers to block probably spamming sources.”
When building your list, many expert web marketers stress the importance of spelling out what you plan to offer as well as how often you’ll be e-mailing. The more specific you can be, the better. For example, you may show a sample e-mail and explain any special offers, discounts, etc. that may be included. You should also state or provide a link to your privacy policy. Then, abide by the agreement you have made with your list. Do not send sales letters and other such materials if all they have signed up for was an informational e-mail.
Soliciting feedback can help you learn about your subscribers. What can you offer them that will maintain their interest? What do they want from you, or why are they interested in your product?
Marketing your e-mail list is also important. Like your web address, calls to sign up for your mailing list should be widely publicized. Put a link to it on every page of your web site, advertise it in your physical location, put the info on your business cards and in print ads, and even include the offer in your phone conversations.
(Parts of this information was adapted from the October 2005 edition of “Practical eCommerce”)
NOTE: As a follow up to last week’s mailing on e-mail etiquette, you may enjoy the link below:
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/hows-your-email-etiquette.html
——————As always, I’m interested in your feedback, questions, problems, and information. Please forward any of that to me at the following e-mail address: vtolbert@laurel-design.com You can also find archives of this newsletter at this link: http://www.laurel-design.com/pages/archives.html (a few are available now with more being added as time permits) Feel free to share this e-mail with anyone you think may be interested. If you do forward it to others, though, please keep the contact information and web address intact. To unsubscribe or to subscribe, send an e-mail to: vtolbert@laurel-design.com http://www.laurel-design.com Phone: 205-338-6546