Lost Opportunity

While I don't condone "spam", (unsolicited advertisements sent by email) we all realize it is a fact of life. It is one of the fastest growing segments of Internet advertising today, and is expected to triple in volume next year. The approximate 400 million dollars spent last year is expected to grow to 1.2 billion in 2002. Many people who have been around the Internet for awhile, have seen this grow to big business. But like any new industry, it is going through growing pains, and basic mistakes are being made. Until these mistakes are corrected, if you use it, like a ship without a rudder, you will eventually founder. The first mistake being made is sending multiple copies of the same ad to the same person. When you get five or ten copies of the same email, one right after the other, it is immediately recognized as spam, and relegated to the trash bin. Why do they send so many copies? They get their email addresses usually by harvesting them from the Internet. They have software with search capabilities, much like the Search Engines, that can target specific types of web sites. They collect every email address they find at a site, and move on to the next. The problem is that most people who own their own domain, have all email delivered to their main domain address. Example - my main domain address is "adv-marketing@adv-marketing.com. Anything sent to anybody@adv-marketing.com will come to my mailbox . So they find a "bunch" of addresses at a web site and consider them all "fair game". Until they solve this problem, you are wasting your money if you contract with them. Misrepresentation is also high on the list. You get the same email with a different title in the subject each time. Many times the title has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the email. It is simply their way of trying to get your attention, and entice you to open the email. Formatting errors are rampant. Many advertisers send out attractively formatted HTML emails. There is a growing use of these types of emails, and they have a lot going for them on the plus side. But they don't recognize that all email clients (readers) are not the same. AOL for example, is probably the most difficult ISP to send HTML documents to. If it is not done correctly, all they receive is a bunch of garbled information. Unless you are sending primitive HTML documents, you must have a separate one for AOL, and another for the rest of the world. And, you must check to make sure that they work. Many common HTML commands that work with most ISP's, simply don't work with AOL, and all they get is garbage. I did an analysis of the subscribers to the Newsletters we publish. In one of my publications, 14 percent of them are AOL users. In another it is 10 percent, and in another it is 8 percent. These numbers represent a sizeable block of the subscriber base. It would be a major mistake to send something out without testing first to make sure that everyone can read it. The next error some make, is trying to hide their identity, so their ISP doesn't cancel their account. Well, it is pretty easy to superficially mask your identity, but someone who is determined can find out who your ISP is. The professional spammers own their servers, so they aren't as concerned. What are they going to do if they get a complaint - cancel themselves? Forged Addresses are simply a waste. Do they really expect you to print a form and mail your order to them? If you are tempted to go with a professional group, make sure the people receiving the email can immediately order online. Get a group that will accept all the orders and pass them along to you. This way, your email address does not appear in the ad, and you are immune from complaints to your ISP. Can't get off the list is probably one of the biggest complaints. Obviously if the address is forged, your reply is going to be returned to you. Responsible emailers honor "remove" requests immediately. If you do plan to use email as one of your advertising methods, either build the list yourself, or find a responsible company to do it for you. The dividends will be worth it, and will not simply result in another "Lost Opportunity".