How To Send Bulk Email Without Being Accused of Spamming
Direct promotions that are using email have boomed over recent
years, but has brought with them mountains of spam. If you
intend on using email as a method of advertising products and
services, you have to be sure that you stand behind the products
you're promoting and make yourself available to answer any
questions that may be asked. If you hide from people, they will
wonder what you are hiding.
An effective promotion technique that I have found is to combine
email with an "ad article strategy". This generally means
creating an ezine or newsletter promotion that visitors can sign
up for that goes directly to their email inboxes. You can
occasionally put a summary of a product or service, however, you
should include just enough information to stir the curiosity of
your readers in an ezine. The summary then contains a link to
the ad article on our site. The benefit of this is not only that
you have a good opportunity to promote the product or service,
but while visitors are on your site they may also look at other
sections at the same time This way you as the advertiser
benefits through having highly targeted potential clients visit
their site.
I can't emphasize enough of the importance of "warming up" your
list before blasting them with an ad. The first few
autoresponses and/or broadcast emails you send to your list
should be purely informational, and should truly benefit your
readers in some way so they want to keep reading what you send
to them. Then after properly gaining their trust, you can start
recommending products. Again the key here is making a
"recommendation", not blasting them with an ad written by the
author of the product you're promoting. You should always
personalize such recommendations and tailor them for your
subscribers.
You would think it goes without saying, but many marketers still
don't understand the importance of a double opt-in system. If
you're serious about bulk email
marketing for the long term without being accused of spam,
it's the only way to go. You can run your own opt-in and list
server on your own server, but for several reasons I would
recommend renting your opt-in service from a long established
company such as Aweber. You will find that your email will be
delivered to a higher percentage of subscribers, and you will
not have to worry about the technical risks of managing the list.
What about those companies that allow you to email your ad to
millions of opt-in members for a low price such as $29.95? In
general, the downfall of such lists is that they are not very
targeted. Nevertheless, there is some value to them considering
the low prices available these days. The key is to make sure
your list manager is reputable. If you blast an ad to people who
haven't opted in, you could run the risk of your site being
banned and even could face fines. So again, yes you can find
good deals, but always take the time to make sure they are
legitimate.