Responsible Email Marketing

From: Terry Brainerd Chadwick <tbchad_at_tbchad.com>
Date: Sat 12 Aug 2000 00:46:36 -0700

The conversations that we have been having about spam
and opt-in email have been occurring on the 'Net since
before it became ok to be commercial. Spammers
arguments haven't changed. They insist that we must
want their products and services; that it doesn't cost
us time and money; and, if we object to receiving their
unwanted messages, that we are anti-commercial.

I've been responsibly using email to market clients'
products and services on the Internet since 1991,
before it was officially commercial. I'm signed up for
a number of Postmaster Direct categories, and receive a
lot of advertising that isn't spam, because I asked to
receive it. Almost all of us on this list are involved
in some form of commercial marketing, advertising, and
sales. So how can we be anti-commercial?

But I've learned, through countless exchanges like
those that have gone on here recently, that spammers
don't want to listen, don't want to learn, and don't
care if they alienate 95% or more of the people that
they spam.

Given that those of us who want to responsibly market
via e-mail will never convince those who want to force
their message on us to change, I would like to redirect
the focus of the topic. Let's discuss ways to
responsibly conduct opt-in e-mail marketing.

To start the conversation off, I recommend that
everyone read Heidi Anderson's article "The Joy of
Responsible Email Marketing."

http://www.clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/article.html?article=2
159

This is the story of how Thomas Cook took a list of
their customer email addresses and developed it into a
much larger list of targeted opt-in customers. Does
anyone else on this list have a similar successful
campaign they can share?

Terry Brainerd Chadwick - InfoQuest!
Information Services
mailto:tbchad_at_tbchad.com
http://www.tbchad.com
Phone: 1.503.228.4023
Strategic Research - Content Development
Site Evaluation & Usability Analysis





Received on Sat Aug 12 2000 - 02:46:36 CDT