Question

Topic: E-Marketing

New E-mail Service Advise Required ! Urgent

Posted by bijlani.ritesh on 1/2/2007 at 11:23 AM ET 125 Points
Hi Friends,
I am thinking of launching a new web service, which would add-in some value to the email marketing industry. I would like to have your opinion on whether a service which would provide you email information of all businesses executives in USA work well.
We all know the typical sales system of calling and marketing is expensive for small and medium business and a low cost email service which can span a complete country or globally can help them reach out of the market in the lowest cost possible. Please suggest if this kind of service would run well, and suggestions on the pricing i should keep for this service.

Thanks,

Ritesh Bijlani
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 1/2/2007 at 11:36 AM Member
    What specific service are you talking about?
  • Posted by bijlani.ritesh on 1/2/2007 at 11:39 AM Author
    well sales reps or small companies only need to upoad the list of contact names and company names and they recieve their email ids... for email marketing, with 95% assured accuracy.

    Questions is will this sell, and at what price?


    thanks
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 1/2/2007 at 11:46 AM Member
    So you are offering to sell business email addresses if someone provides company and individual names?

    This is not new. In the US, it's called email append. And for businesses, the way it works in most cases is that you either know a company's protocol for email addresses (first.last@companyname.com) or you just guess at it until you get a delivered message.

    To my knowledge, this kind of service has not been very well received. We certainly don't advocate its use, as it's clearly not in the spirit of permission marketing.

    Is this what you're talking about?
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 1/2/2007 at 12:02 PM Member
    ahunt -

    This is not entirely true. There are certain rules about "spam," for sure, but sending unsolicited email, in and of itself, is not against the law.

  • Posted on 1/2/2007 at 12:11 PM Member
    Inbox-

    Isn't sending unsolicited email against the law in certain countries?

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 1/2/2007 at 12:20 PM Member
    Andrew -

    Can't speak for other countries, but as there was a reference to the FCC, I assume we're talking about the US.

    There is no federal law in the US against sending unsolicited email. Contrary to what many think, "CAN-SPAM" does not make unsolicited email illegal solely because it is unsolicited.


  • Posted on 1/2/2007 at 2:34 PM Accepted
    All the debate on email v. spam notwithstanding, the question is whether this would be viable business model. I would tend to say no for a few reasons. First, there are A LOT of companies that already offer a VERY similar service and very reliable email lists. These companies are very well established and have strong ties with the companies that buy their product year after year. Cracking this business with a similar (identical?) product with no advantages will be almost impossible.

    Next question, can you expect companies to obtain email addresses in this fashion? I know that in one company I used to work for, this was not allowed (company policy, not law). Basically, the rule was that if the contact didn't give you a piece of their contact information, they didn't give it to you for a reason, so going around them to get it is just bad business. Perhaps you find their email address, but they don't want to receive emails from your company (imagine if you are a recruiting firm) at a particular address because they shouldn't be receiving them at that address. Basic idea, if you want their email address and know their name, just call them and ask otherwise you'll upset more people than you please.

    Finally, the popularity of lists and matching services (personal experience) like this is decreasing because of the decrease in effectiveness. A direct response campaign via email (even with existing customers) should expect a LOW single digit response rate and even lower conversion rate. Second, with the addition of spam blockers (even if this is not officially spam) more and more of these messages never get through to the customer. More companies are realizing there are better ways to communicate with customers.

    Sorry to rain on the parade, but you asked for opinions.

    JMR for Focus Fields.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 1/2/2007 at 6:02 PM Member
    It seems to me there are a number of issues raised by your question and the discussions so far:

    - is unsolicited email legal in particular countries?
    - is the service you describe a "new" service?
    - what do folks on this board think of unsolicited email?
    - could someone make money with such a service?

    Regarding the first issue, "is it legal?" - I'm from the States and know very little about the laws overseas, but unsolicited email is legal under certain situations in the US. It may be that the techniques you plan to use to "harvest" email addresses may NOT be legal in the US.

    Regarding the second issue, if I understand what I believe you are saying, I do not believe the service you describe is a "new" service. There are a great many list brokers, and many email marketing companies.

    Regarding the third issue: I had recently posted a question about peoples opinions about unsolicited email, and we had quite a number of interesting responses. You can see the question here:

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=15555

    Regarding the fourth issue: clearly there is money to be made in marketing via email... but I believe you would need to provide much more comprehensive services than simply renting lists and trying to send emails.
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