Re: Is Fogdog's email marketing Wrong?

From: Daniel Karpelman <DKarpelman_at_imandi.com>
Date: Thu 2 Mar 2000 18:25:56 -0800

I'd like to respond to the post "Is Fogdog's email
marketing Wrong?" where Mark Welch lambasts the
sporting goods site for asking its customers and
affiliates to provide the company with their friends'
email addresses in exchange for rewards based on the
number of friends who place orders with Fogdog.

Viral marketing is certainly not new. It's based on the
simple tenet that people want to share a good thing
with their friends. At imandi.com, we have created an
immensely successful program called "imandi Rewards"
<http://www.imandi.com/rewards> where we pay people $5
each for their first 20 referrals and $2 for every one
thereafter to a maximum of $25,000. It has proven to be
an effective cyber "word-of-mouth" campaign for our new
reverse marketplace site.

We have a similar "Refer A Friend" functionality where
Rewards members can enter the email addresses of their
friends and family and we will send them a solicitation
on their behalf. All such emails are sent from <user
firstname, lastname via imandi.com> -- there is no
obscuring who actually originated the message. We
strictly enforce the rule that you have to KNOW the
people to whom you send mail. Now, how WELL our member
knows these people is something we can't quantify. I
can also say that we had a spam complaint about one
letter -- from our member's own BROTHER!

When Mr. Welch proclaims, "...there are certainly
thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of netizens who
consider me their 'friend' and who might conceivably
sign me up..." that is stretching a point. Certainly
members of your club, co-workers, bowling buddies, etc.
qualify as friends. People who read your post on a
newsgroup are not.

Most responsible companies are sensitive to this and,
as imandi.com does, take them very seriously. I would
ask WHO the "friend" was that sent the message to Mr.
Welch. Was it someone he personally knew? If not, I
would complain to Fogdog.

Yes, Mark, I think you are being too strict in your
definition of improper email practices. Give that
delete button a workout before condemning those who use
email marketing responsibly and with conscience.

Daniel Karpelman
Director of Viral Marketing
imandi.com | Redmond, Washington
http://www.imandi.com
Where customers rule!(tm)




Received on Thu Mar 02 2000 - 20:25:56 CST