NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> e-mail marketing the right way
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> e-mail marketing the right way
Andy Rebele (andy_at_clerk.com)
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 19:17:50 -0700
I think this discussion is a very healthy one. Too often people
are hesitant to discuss email marketing/advertising because
they're afraid of the backlash; however, to find the right way
to do it takes constructive dialogue.
It is not for business advantage that I personalize the message.
It is because I think it's wrong to cost the recipient more
time/expense to evaluate and discard a message than it cost me
to send it. I don't mean wasting my time; I mean spending time
making absolutely sure that the recipient has demonstrated a
good reason they might want to receive the note, and letting the
recipient know that the note is a result of personal effort not
a script.
I'm sure that sending my message to 4 million people would get
me a greater absolute number of positive responses. Also, it
would not be very hard. The software costs very little and
anyone can get a temporary ISP account knowing that it will be
shut down in a couple of days. We're all familiar with the
outfit that will host a web site and not care about spamming.
I'm not even sure that the argument that I'd lose too much
business from the people I would bother is really true.
The point is really that in the "real" world, the law and common
sense have made things analogous to automated spamming illegal
(automated telemarketing machines, unsolicited commercial mass
faxes), and things analogous to personalized highly targeted
email legal (telemarketing, door to door salespeople, bulk
postal mail). An ethical person sees this and concludes that
the right way to do things is to use highly targeted
personalized email. I have found that doing so is a very
effective way to market your web site. Perhaps reckless
spamming is more effective, but it is not an option for the
ethical web site promoter.
Sanford Wallace makes his money by breaking laws before they are
written. I think a better way is to use common sense to
establish your own online marketing ethics based on the
principles inherent in laws governing traditional marketing.
Andy Rebele
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