SuperUser Account posted on February 10, 2009 19:11
Email advertising, if done correctly, can be one of the best advertising investments for your business. However, the proliferation of U.C.E. (Unsolicited Bulk Email also known as spam) has made email advertising synonymous with “junk mail”. This article will describe the difference between the two, present some general guidance on how to properly use email advertising and also provide some resources should you choose this method of advertising.
What is SPAM or Unsolicited Bulk Email?
The general definition of spam: An electronic message is spam IF: (1) the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients; AND (2) the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent; AND (3) the transmission and reception of the message appears to the recipient to give a disproportionate benefit to the sender. In other words, if a recipient did not specifically ask to receive your advertising message, it is very likely to be considered spam.
What is Email Advertising?
Email advertising is the process of sending email containing your advertising message to recipients whom have given you specific permission to do so. The key phrase in that sentence is “given you specific permission”. There are several differences between spam email and legitimate email advertising, not the least of which is that legitimate email advertising is always permission-based. Permission-based does not mean that you purchase thousands or millions of email addresses whom the seller ”claims” have given their permission to receive emails from you. Permission-based means that the sender can provide proof of the recipient’s agreement to receive emails specifically from them. A legitimate email advertiser also includes two other important pieces in each email: the code “ADV” in the subject line of each email to inform the recipient that the email contains an advertisement and clear and concise removal instructions in the event that the recipient no longer wishes to receive email from the sender.
How to Create a Permission-based Email List
There are many ways to create a legitimate, permission-based email list. One of the best ways is to simply ask your Web site visitors to give you permission to send them email advertising. Provide an easy method on your Web site for them to enter their email address and receive valuable information from you. Explain what you will be sending and how often you will send it. You can also create an electronic newsletter that your Web site visitors can subscribe to or any number of other methods to legitimately collect email addresses from your Web site visitors. The key here is to be honest about your intentions and state them up-front. If you intend to send email advertising to the subscribers on your list twice a week you should state that, up front, prior to the visitor signing up. This will reduce the number of complaints and people who unsubscribe because they were mislead. Managing the expectation is half the battle.
Craft a Message and Create the Campaign
Once you have a legitimate email list, you’ll need to craft your advertising message. There is a whole industry devoted to crafting your advertising message, the subject matter being too vast to go into detail here. In this article we will assume that the sender has reviewed the resources at the end of this article and created a carefully crafted advertising message. Next comes the email campaign. Like any other marketing campaign, a business should track responses to see if the message is generating the type of results the advertiser is looking to produce. If not, the advertiser can modify the campaign for the next round of mailings; repeat the evaluation process and improve on the message each time.
Getting the Message Out
This area, again, has a whole industry devoted to getting your message out. The methods range from do-it-yourself methods to paying hundreds of dollars for a variety of services. Because more than 40% of all email sent on the Internet is considered UCE or spam, many Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) have limited the number of email messages any one account can send in a specific amount of time. These limits vary from provider to provider and a business should check with their ISP to determine their limits. A note of caution here; failure to adhere to these limits may result in your Internet account being terminated or worse yet, your domain name may be black-listed and classified as a spammer. Often, you can contact your ISP and request that your account be added to their list of authorized bulk-mail senders.
Resources
For more information about anti-spam laws as well as best practices and other useful information please visit these Internet resources: www.spamlaws.com, www.spamcon.org.
This article was originally published in the November 2004 issue of the Corona Business Monthly