(Source) During the month of November 2007, close to 90 percent of the email volume received by large companies was spam according to a report from Proofpoint.
Does the high volume of e-mail spam mean that e-mail marketing is no longer effective? Don’t count on it. Companies that do it the right way still earn a nice return on their e-mail marketing. But what is the right way?
The key to success e-mail marketing is in the list. You have to have a good list and that means good prospects who want to be contacted by your offers. If you are one of the e-mail marketers that are sending out e-mail spam to promote your business, take note: You’re not just breaking the law; you are also engaging in a practice that isn’t even effective. Most people don’t open spam and most who do don’t purchase anything from it. It is largely a waste of time.
The spam laws are actually pretty lenient. They allow for a wide range of practices that are considered legal. For instance, it’s OK to send e-mail to prospects who didn’t ask to be contacted by your company IF you don’t misrepresent yourself in the process, send your e-mail from a different e-mail address from the one displayed in the sender field of the e-mail, and you include an opt out or unsubscribe link in the e-mail. That’s pretty lenient. However, sending that kind of e-mail is still ineffective.
The best e-mail marketing campaigns use a double opt-in process. It’s called permission marketing. By getting the permission of the people who receive your e-mail offers, you are not only safe from the law but you are also more likely to get a click through and more likely to close a sale. The double opt-in process gives your prospects two chances to say “No.” It also gives them two chances to say “Yes,” and if you get that yes then you know that you have a prospect who is truly interested in what you have to say. But you still need to include an unsubscribe in all of your e-mails to those prospects. It’s for your own protection and why waste time sending e-mails to people who aren’t interested in your services? It just doesn’t make sense.
Caroline Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
Small Business Mavericks Blog
