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Major Communications
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Major Communications
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If you asked five different people this question you would probably get five totally different answers. I suppose answers differ depending on which side of the fence you are on-the side sending the email or the side receiving it.
I have received various questions regarding my opinions about various ways of marketing regarding spam. If you have followed any of the marketing newsletters or information you will know that email can be your best friend. It can also be your worst enemy. Some of the messages I receive I chalk up to one of the hassles of doing business online. Just like checking my snail mail-I trash a good majority of it before I even get to the house. So it is with my email. If I don't know who the message is coming from and I see that it is a promotional piece it will probably get deleted without even opening it. I don't have time to read literally every message I receive-considering that I receive about 200 or more messages a day. It's hard enough to keep up with the important mail.
Here are a few of my viewpoints from a receiving end:
One thing that bothers me is when I receive the same message to ALL of my email addresses. This includes some of the aliases I use for tracking purposes or for special messages. There have been times when I have received the same message to about 10 addresses, some of these are autoresponder addresses and others are business addresses for specific purposes. I know for a fact that I didn't request that information.
It is really irritating when people subscribe to PIP News by sending a sales pitch to my subscription address. They subscribe to my newsletter and apparently think that because they are receiving information from me it gives them the right to send me all of their promotional materials. Don't get me wrong here. There are some of you that I have developed a personal rapport with that do send me things once in awhile. That is different. I don't mind getting things from people I have dealt with.
There are some who subscribe to newsletters and glean the email addresses out of them and put those addresses on their own mailing lists. If you do any advertising in newsletters these people will put your email address on their list. They feel that you, in essence, have sent them your offer through a newsletter and they have every right to send you their information.
Another thing that is really irritating is when people request information from my autoresponders and then send me their information stating that we had corresponded in the past. The only correspondence was my autoresponder sending to their autoresponder.
Now for my viewpoints from a sending point of view:
There is an ethical way of doing things and there is an unethical way of doing things. Unethical tactics may be legal, but not very well respected. Each of us have our own opinion of what is Ethical. These are only my opinions. Some very popular was of promoting on the net can be very legal but to me are unethical and I won't use those tactics. I would rather take the slower road and have a more stable business.
Someone asked me awhile back about automatically subscribing people to their newsletter if they responded in any way to an ad or various other promotional information. I know there are some who subscribe people to their newsletters or you are automatically subscribed if you place an ad on their site. I disagree with this for the simple reason that I receive enough newsletters that I don't need any more except the ones that I personally subscribe to that I feel I might benefit from.
You will not see any requirement on my site or in any of my literature to subscribe to PIP News just because you want to place on ad on my classified ads page or receive information. There is an invitation on almost every page of my site but you are not automatically subscribed just because you visited the site or responded to anything there. All subscribers to PIP News are 100% opt-in. I have been having trouble with my list server unsubscribing a few recent requests to unsubscribe and this makes me very uneasy, especially with how I feel about spam. I'm trying very hard to get this taken care of.
There is a difference in sending bulk e-mail to an opt-in list and gleaning addresses. It is my understanding that there is software that will glean e-mail address from various sources-and from the looks of some of the e-mail messages I receive I would say this is correct. I don't agree with gleaning addresses. However, if people have responded to an ad and have requested information you have the right and obligation to keep them informed of improvements or following up with them in hopes of making a sale. I would suggest providing instructions in each follow up message for being removed from the list, however. This way if someone should chose not to receive any more messages from you they have the opportunity to be removed easily.
There are a lot of ethical ways of building your online business. It's easy to want our financial dreams to come true much faster and we listen to people who are providing the wrong answers. I would much rather be safe than sorry. I've worked too hard to take a chance on losing my ISP and prefer to take the safe route.
That still doesn't provide total security for me, though. I read in one newsletter that I subscribe to that the publisher was accused of spamming by a subscriber. This person subscribed to the newsletter and then reported the publisher as a spammer. We publishers don't need that. It takes plenty of time to publish a weekly newsletter and when we have to cut into our time to handle situations like that it's enough to make a person go insane.
I have received messages from, newsletter publisher, affiliate programs, autoresponder providers, etc. about the problems with spamming. It's not just personal email now. The problem is becoming widespead.
Some of the programs have had their site removed because one or two people abused the program. The same thing happens with autoresponders. Someone sends spam from an autoresponder address and the whole system suffers. That's what happened with one recent program. One person spammed a newsgroup and the site was removed. Now the whole affiliate program is in jeopardy just because of one person. Many times you are not just taking a chance on losing your own email privileges but also taking away other people's opportunities and dreams. It's amazing how many problems can be created by just a few people.
What causes this problem? I think a lot of people who are new to the Internet want to be successful so badly that they take all the advice they can get without checking things out thoroughly. Someone tells them about bulk software and how wonderful it is and the way it is laid out for them it does sound wonderful-Get your message out to millions of people with hardly any effort on your part. What isn't told to them is the possible ramifications and hazards of this form of marketing. We all want success and if we can achieve it in a way that would mean less work-so much the better. However, sometimes the quicker way isn't necessarily the safer way.
A few suggestions:
*Never send email to someone who doesn't request it.
*Keep a record of all messages received requesting your
information.
*Offer an invitation rather than a requirement to subscribe
to your newsletter.
*Don't put others in jeopardy by not following the rules.
*Read ALL FAQ's and introduction messages whenever beginning
a new program or responding to a discussion list or bulletin
board.
Remember, e-mail can be your biggest asset-IF USED CORRECTLY. If used incorrectly it can also be your biggest downfall.
Pam Jones is the publisher of PIP News. She specializes in
offering informative information and services that will keep
you on the right track with your online marketing to help
you explode your online profits. To subscribe to PIP News
send a blank email to PIP-News@ourlist.net. For more details
about the information and services provided visit her
website at http://www.profitpowerpromo.com
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