| Anyone who has spent
significant time on the Web has had the
dubious pleasure of being spammed.
"Spam" is the name Web users
have coined for unsolicited commercial
e-mail (UCE), those often unsavory,
uninvited communiqués that appear in
your inbox. Few business people--with the
notable of exception of Sanford Wallace
and his infamous Cyberpromotions spam
marketing operation--want to be
associated with a practice that has all
the popular appeal of E-coli bacteria. Here’s
the problem: The unprecedented reach of
e-mail marketing make it impossible for
marketers to ignore. The numbers really
tell the story. Currently, 30 million
American adults--or 15 percent of the
population--use e-mail. A total of 12.8
million households and 11 million
businesses have e-mail, with 6 trillion
e-mails expected to be transmitted in the
year 2000. How does a business hitch its
wagon to this cybermarketing dream
without becoming every e-mail user’s
worst nightmare?
According to Al Bredenberg of
Copywriter.Com in Cornwall, Conn., there
is a way to preserve your reputation,
while at the same time cashing in on the
cyber lode that is e-mail marketing. At
DCI’s Internet Expo in Boston,
Bredenberg recently presented a session
titled Getting Results in E-Mail
Marketing, in which he passed on tips
for effective and ethical use of the
medium.
The Push for
Direct E-Mail
The buzz in Web marketing circles
today is all about "push" But,
as Bredenberg points out, e-mail has
worked on the push principle for years,
with marketers directing streams of
product/service information to
prospective customers’ inboxes. He
observes that the concept of
"pushing" information out is as
old as the idea of advertising itself.
"Advertisers are used to the idea
that they need to push their message out
to their audiences,’’
Bredenberg says. "It only makes
sense to use push to get the message out
to this tremendous market of e-mail
users," he says.
Among the Benefits of E-Mail
Marketing On Bredenberg’s List:
- Low cost
- Ease of management
- Quick turnaround time of
campaigns
- Intrusiveness (The message is
there until the e-mail user opens
it.)
- It is both measurable and
testable.
One way of using push
technology/e-mail marketing is through
the spamming, alias UCE or bulk mail
marketing. The numbers bulk mailers are
able to generate certainly makes it seem
attractive. Cyberpromotion’s Wallace
claims to send 4 million pieces per day.
But Bredenberg points out that--besides
the obvious fact that spamming is an
inexcusable breach of Netiquette--it is
apt to prove totally ineffective.
"There is widespread hatred of
UCE across the Internet, with a recent
Harris poll showing that 42 percent of
respondents wished that spamming would
stop," Bredenberg says. "But,
more importantly, I believe that the
success of e-mail marketing is directly
proportional to how much people want to
receive your mail. Anyone who is
anxiously awaiting your e-mail is certain
to be receptive to your message,"
Bredenberg says.
But, suppose you decide to take the
high road and steer clear of the growing
pack of outlaw spammers on the Web. How
does a responsible business build a list
of voluntary e-mail recipients?
Bredenberg offers a number of
suggestions:
- Use your in-house announcement
list to gauge interest among
customers, vendors and other
members of your corporate
community. As a next step, use
the more extensive, in-house
advertising list to give
customers, and business prospects
a chance to sign on to an e-mail
list.
- Create an e-mail newsletter which
could be sent to anyone who has
expressed interest in your
business. The newsletter will
offer the opportunity to promote
your business through content,
while at the same time offering
the readers the chance to sign to
an e-mail list.
- Participate in related discussion
groups and sponsor other
groups’ newsletters. This
approach provides access to lists
of potential customers who might
otherwise be out of your reach.
- Subscribe to one of the growing
list of opt-in e-mail services.
At a number of sites across the
Web, visitors can sign on to
receive information about any
number of areas of interest. The
cost for sending messages out to
people interested in your product
is usually between 10 and 15
cents per e-mail. (One good
service is postmasterdirect.com.)
"The incentives are definitely
there for voluntary, ethical e-mail
marketing," Bredenberg says. "I
think we’ll see less and less
spamming when businesses realize that it
makes more sense to have prospective
customers voluntarily receiving your
messages. Or, as I like to say,
‘Caveat Spammor—Spammers
Beware.’"
Sue Mellen writes
from Tyngsboro, Mass.
Publication
date: October 3, 1997
Find out more about reaching
customers on the Web at at DCI’s Sales
Force Automation Conference and at the The DCI
Data Warehouse
Conference
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