I have spoken in the past about e-mail marketing, and such things as building a list.
For some reason, this has been a hot topic in my business this past week. I have had a few people ask me about this, and also seen a few people who are definitely utilizing the wrong way to e-mail market.
E-mail is a fantastic tool for marketing and growing your business, but spam is a great way to ruin your reputation.
What is Spam?
“Spam” has become the widely recognized term for unsolicited e-mail. It is so big that several multi-million dollar industries have sprung up around it. One for the slimeballs who perpetuate all of the garbage that ends up in our spam filters, and one industry for helping protect people from that garbage.
Now, let’s discuss some of the legal mumbo jumbo that is associated with e-mail marketing and “spam.”
In 2003, Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act to govern unsolicited e-mail practices. In fact, CAN-SPAM stands for “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing.” If you do any sort of e-mail marketing, you should familiarize yourself with the details of the law. You can check it out directly at the Federal Trade Commission’s website.
Basically, the act breaks down to three main points. There is definitely more to it than this, but this is just a paraphrase.
#1 - Don’t Be a Deceptive Scumbag.
Basically what this means is that you should be honest. Your “To:, From:, Reply to:, etc” information all has to be real and accurate.
Likewise, your subject header has to at least remotely reflect what is in the e-mail. You would be alright with saying “I have bad news” and then have the e-mail content talk about how you are taking a product off the market. But you can’t have your subject be “I have bad news” and then have the e-mail content be full of links to Madagascar rhinoceros porn. (For the record, I have no idea if there are rhinos in Madagascar and if there are, what the porn would look like. But you get the picture.) Incidentally, there are rules specifically for sexually explicit e-mails, but I am not even going to cover those, because I am assuming nobody reading this is a porn king.
In a nutshell, don’t lie about who or where the e-mail is coming from, and don’t lie about what is in it.
#2 - Tell People That It Is an Ad, and Tell Them Where Your Business Is.
Once again, this is pretty straightforward stuff. If the primary purpose of the e-mail is to pimp your stuff, be honest about it. Also, make sure you include your physical mailing address. Just give complete disclosure about what you are up to, and people won’t get pissy.
#3 - Include a Way For People To Opt-Out of Receiving E-mails, and Honor Such Requests In a Timely Fashion.
This means you need to give people an easy way of letting you know “Hey, I don’t want your commercial e-mails!” If you use a mailer program or service, it usually includes something like that automatically.
Of all of the violations I see, this is the one I see most often. The reason is because the violations of the others are usually real spam garbage, and so that automatically gets funneled into my spam folder in my e-mail client, and I never even see those.
But often I meet people, or have a business associate, who decides to put me on an e-mail list. I begin getting a newsletter, or maybe some kind of promotional e-mails. But because they are manually sending these e-mails and not going through an e-mail service or autoresponder, there is no automated opt-out option, or even a short sentence offering to take me off the list if I just reply back.
The ones making this mistake are usually people with good intentions. They are trying to form a relationship, stay in contact, and be good business people. However, it sometimes has the opposite effect. Instead of recipients thinking “How nice, Ralph is keeping in touch and letting me know about the new specials” they instead think “My inbox is already jammed. Why am I getting this e-mail, and where do I click to stop it?”
When I get such an e-mail, I take it in stride, and generally just hit delete. But that is me. I get about 30-40 emails a day. I know other people who get upwards of 200 e-mails a day, and when they start getting unsolicited e-mails with no way to opt-out, they get annoyed. And that is really not the result you want from your marketing efforts.
If you are going to be doing any e-mail marketing, do it right. Follow the law and stay out of trouble. I highly recommend you begin using a mailer service. There are several, such as iContact, AWeber, 1ShoppingCart, Constant Contact, and more. Just go ahead and do some research about the features and benefits of each. Some are bare bones, some have more whistles and bells. It really just comes down to what is best for your needs. Most of them will have systems in place to make sure your e-mail marketing is compliant with the law.
I personally use 1ShoppingCart, and am very happy with the features. If you want to be really nice, you can click through my affiliate link and I’ll make a little cash off of it. But I recommend that one specifically because I use it. The little commission I would make would just be a little bonus.
I hope this has been enlightening for you. E-mail is a wonderful medium for marketing your business. Just make sure you do it right, do it ethically, and do it legally.
Brent Allan is the “Small Biz Marketing Wiz” who specializes in unconventional marketing methods for small businesses. He is the editor and head honcho for BizWarrior Online. When he isn’t making the world a better place through his knowledge of marketing and branding, he juggles, does magic, and eats fire. Pretty cool, eh?
