Isn’t Email Marketing Spamming?
- 14 Comment
One of my blogging habits is to read John Chow daily. Yesterday he wrote how to do an email promotion. Mark of 45n5 recently put together an email promotion to market his top 100 money making blogs list, which we now rank 19 on.
Isn’t Email Marketing Just Spamming?
I generally get 1-2 “marketing” emails asking us to look at certain affiliate programs, blogs, or posts. Isn’t this just another form of spam?
Wikipedia lists “E-mail Spam” as “unsolicited e-mail”. Unsolicited means “Not looked for or requested”.
This poses the question again, isn’t email marketing just another form of spam?
Same Email to Many Users
Unless it is customized per email, an argument can be made, but what about emails that are exactly the same sent to 100 bloggers?
When doing email marketing you have to be really careful to not look spammy. Several messages I disregard just from what they say. However, I have found useful information via email marketing from other bloggers.
The Top 100 Money Making List
Yes, Mark did use email marketing to further promote his list, but I really think he didn’t need to. The idea and set-up is really solid. I personally didn’t receive an email from him, however I read about the list on another blog. The power of blogging has really gotten the list to catch fire and now you can see tons of bloggers mentioning his list.
Does it take clever email marketing to get started?
Should You Become an Email Marketer?
I think email is and can be one of the most powerful tools on the internet. If you don’t use it you can be missing out on something very useful. However, before you go ahead and send tons of emails out about your latest post, I would first send some to those who you know. Contact bloggers you’ve already conversed with.
Last but not least John Chow shares the three points of effective email promotion:
- Promote your best content
- Don’t sell
- Never email somebody more than once per month for promoting your content
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14 Comments on this post
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45n5 said:
spam is better defined by the can spam act, with which the act of emailing people with public email addresses or contact forms from non cloaked email and a clear title is not considered spam
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm
by your definition any email sent to your “contact us” link on this page is spam.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:04 pm -
Missy said:
To me email marketing is tricky as it can be highly unwanted and intrusive.
I for one absolutely CANNOT keep up with my email, i have not had a clear inbox for about a year now. I am vested in alot of different things and projects, and that is my fault so im not saying this is the case for all or even most, but i would venture to say, most people get tons of email daily and they dont exactly like or welcome more.
I like John Chows idea of sending out NO MORE than one promo email monthly, this i can keep up with. lol.
September 11th, 2007 at 3:22 pm -
Matt said:
Thanks for your opinion Mark, I do agree that I and other bloggers are kind of “asking” for it displaying a contact form. But I see a contact form, more to be contacted about your own site etc
Haha 1 a month isn’t that bad. I’m not complaining here, just simply bringing up the question 🙂
September 11th, 2007 at 5:31 pm -
BlogOxide said:
E mail marketing is not a spam if it works within the course of action defined for it. The difference between email marketing and spam is similar to the difference between marketing and spam. I’ however, completely agree to the concluding points of the post.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:09 am -
Wallace said:
no doubt, it is spam.
it will make you lost loyal readers only.September 12th, 2007 at 9:31 am -
TK said:
I have been active in email marketing for about 13 years now.
I can tell you that you will find people that will tell you are spamming them no matter what you do.
All of our lists are double opt-in and I still have people say that they never signed up.
September 12th, 2007 at 5:35 pm -
sexymoneytips said:
It’s spam when you send something the other party will have no interest in using. If it’s something that will catch their attention they won’t see it as spam, trust me, i’ve tried it.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:25 pm -
TK said:
You have no idea if someone on your list going to be interested.
I have lists with 30,000 people on them. Even though they double-opted in they do it for strange reasons sometimes.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:30 pm -
Matt said:
what is starting to annoy me is those trying to get me to join their affiliate program, then when I respond I get nothing >:[ lol
September 13th, 2007 at 12:41 pm -
Susan Suarez said:
Email marketing works, but what makes it not attractive is the number of steps to make sure it’s in par with the law. Direct Mail works also…even with the common 1-2% response rate…crazy isn’t it?
Have you heard of Bacn? Sorta like Spam but not by definition….
September 13th, 2007 at 2:33 pm -
YC said:
Email marketing definitely works and many swear by it. And like so many have said here, spam can be so open to different interpretations, it’s a hit & miss thing. Personally I receive loads of spam, but I just ignore them. Got too little time to worry about dealing with it. 🙂
September 14th, 2007 at 1:02 am -
Pam Hoffman said:
Thanks for posing the question – I read thru all of your comments and it seems odd that we never complain about junk mail that comes to us – we just pitch it if it doesn’t pertain to us at the moment.
I do the same thing with email. Unless I miss it, which happens a lot.
Even stuff I requested or opened myself to (by ordering from a site), I don’t always have time/money/inclination to look at right now. I’m not worried, they will have another offer a little later on and it is likely to be a BETTER one! Ever notice?
I realize that in some places in the world, spam is a much bigger issue than here in the USA where I live. There is a lot to consider when you are charged vast amounts for time online. That will likely change as well.
I’ve had people request info about my Cashflow Club thru richdad.com and a few emails later, they get all upset about the emails. I’m GLAD to take them off of my list (and i’m doing everything by hand right now…) since they don’t ‘get it’ anyway.
It is surprising to me that the government has so regulated something like the internet and likewise that we have let them.
The USPS (USA) would break down without their junk mail!
2c,
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.comp.s. found you thru a blogcatalog discussion
September 15th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
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