Sending Commercial Email
With more and more court rulings on commercial email, it is
becoming difficult to send people information via email without
being labelled a spammer. So, how can a small business owner get
their message out (via email) without losing their ISP and
receiving tons of hate mail (often including malicious programs
called "bombs")?
You have two choices: 1. spend a lot of money; or 2. spend a lot
of time and effort.
Spend A Lot Of Money
Yes, there are cheap email lists available online. However,
chances are those lists are compiled of email addresses
collected from websites or directories. It's unlikely that the
owner of the list has the recipient's permission to send them
anything.
There are also lists out there compiled of people who requested
information. Some offer bonuses for receiving, reading or
responding to advertisements. That may be a good strategy from
the list owner's perspective, but you're likely to receive a lot
of responses from people who have no interest in your product.
That translates into wasted time and energy on your part, as you
try to follow up on those bogus leads.
If you want to send email messages to a lot of people, I highly
recommend sticking to dependable lists of people who requested
information. YesMail and Postmaster Direct are the two biggest
companies which offer opt-in email lists. They offer many ways
to target your market, as well as legitimately obtained
addresses.
Spend A Lot Of Time And Effort
If you can't afford to work with the big boys, you can compile
your own list. See my article, "How to Capture Email Addresses"
at http://www.busymarketing.com/email.shtml
Compiling your own list will involve first promoting your
website by other methods. (I've got a lot of ideas at
http://www.busymarketing.com/marketing.shtml and in my E-Books -
see the newest one, "106 Website Promotion Tips" at
http://www.busymarketing.com/106tips.shtml ) Then you must
convince people to send you their email addresses by offering an
announcement list, newsletter, freebie, or contest.
Unfortunately, people are becoming wary of giving out their
email addresses. They get too much email as it is. Your offer
must be compelling to convince them to hand over contact
information. Even then, don't expect the email addresses to pour
in unless you already receive a lot of traffic.
"Isn't There An Easier Way?"
I knew you'd ask that. There is another way to send information
about your website via email, but you might not be able to get
an exclusive ad. You can pay a small amount of money (some are
even free!) for an advertisement in a newsletter, like this one.
More people read newsletters than stand-alone commercial
advertisements, since they generally have useful information.
The list is built for you, and you can find one for almost any
target audience imaginable.
There are numerous directories of ezines, many of which include
information about advertising in email newsletters. My list is
located near the bottom of
http://www.busymarketing.com/addurl.shtml Also, consider the
newsletters you already subscribe to. Chances are, many are
related to your website's topic and are targeted at the same
audience. Just scroll to the bottom for information on
advertising opportunities or contact the editor about it.
(For advertising information for this newsletter, send a blank
email to
ads@busymarketing.com )
There are many types of newsletter advertising, from stand-alone
ads which are sent independently of the newsletter to one or two
line "classifieds" crowded together at the end. Make sure you
know what your options are and what you're getting by
subscribing to the newsletter in advance. The things to look for
are quality content and little competition (you don't want to be
on page 3 of a 5 page advertising section).