Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Spam is unwanted and unrequested email. If a prospective customer did not request and does not want your email message, you're a spammer.

This isn't even a gray-area issue. It's wrong.

Now, how can you ignore your boss's unethical request and still keep your job ... assuming you still want it?

If you follow Can-SPAM rules, legality won't be an issue. Three rules: The email has to be from an email to which you can return an email (not hidden or misdirected). There must be a subject line. There must be an opt-out option.

This is legality, NOT ethics! Ethics and legality are not the same! Ethics would involve misleading your customers to get them to give you their email address so you can use it to market to them or sell to others. Not strictly illegal, but misleading the customer is not ethical.

The other important issue to consider is regardless of ethics or legality, you have to consider your brand image. Is it within your brand to send prospecting (and soliciting) emails to your clients when they haven't specifically agreed or requested such information? You could lose customers by degrading your image.

One thing to consider with respect to this is how much business you hope to land via email campaigns to this new batch of customers versus the risk of ticking them off. To evaluate this, if you send emails out today, what is your close rate and the value of that business? If the close rate is difficult to evaluate or is small, the risk is probably not worth it.

Of course, if depends on what you are sending. If you are sending emails of value to your customer, then you don't have much to worry about. If, on the other hand, you are sending emails with all the subtlety of Canadian Pharmacies and Fake Rolex watch vendors, then you will lose.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Actually, I have been told by a lawyer that this is NOT spam.

If sending an unrequested e-mail to a company contact is spam then send the feds to my house and lock me up.

The point is that you don't want this to be your sole marketing activity. It really isn't the most effective...but it can be done if you have a good message.

Michael

This question has been the heart of the spam debate for a very long time.

For some reason, it's okay to get a list of people and send them direct mail...and it's okay to get a list of people and call them. But look out below if you take that same approach with someone's sacred email address. You might as well be asking someone for a kidney.

There are, of course, many reasons why we should work to keep the level of unsolicited email to the bare minimum. After all, if every small business in the country sent you only one email per month, unsolicited...well, you'd have a whole heap of email that you really didn't want. It's cheaper than direct mail and telemarketing and a whole lot easier, so it's got to be reigned in some how.

There would be nothing illegal about doing what your boss has asked you to do, assuming that you adhere to CAN-SPAM and whatever local laws might apply.

As far as making a bad impression, sure, if your message is way off point and of no interest to the recipient, then of course you're going to make a bad impression. Most people don't like unsolicited email because it's not relevant to them.

It can be easier to make messages relevant in the business-to-business world, though, because you *know* what business the recipient is in.

I will say this. We provided creative work for a company that did exactly this...gathered up a bunch of email addresses in the industry and put them on a house list. They had 200,000 records, none of them opt in. And they mail a newsletter each month that does not do half bad, and there have been no complaints, not even a one. Unsubscribes, sure, but not higher than normal. This newsletter is a success, despite its unseemly origins.

Why? Because the content is relevant, timely, and useful.

Let your conscience be your guide.

I personally think this is "morally" spam, although some one might "legally" argue it's not spam. Soft opt in is only applicable, if the recipient done any business with you in the past. But, here you are going to send emails to total strangers, without their prior consent.

I don't reccomend doing thi at all. Think about the long term. I don't think, your boss is trying to do any good to your company here. I think this is a very short sighted strategy, where it can harm the long term credibility of your company. People are more and more concerned their online privacy, and things like spamming.

Here's a good resource, to read.

https://www.e-consultancy.com/forum/100410-free-email-list-of-2-5m-uk-consu...

The law says you can email someone as long as you give them a way to opt out and take them off the list when they ask, provide an address and don't offer any unlawful offers.

I also think this is not a breach of ethics, no more than sending a printed piece in the mail, calling a business contact on the phone or interupting their reading with a magazine ad. Again, take people off the list when they ask.

Read the CanSpam act before you do anything. It's pretty straightforward.

https://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm

The way I have chosen to interpret this is that you can get email addresses this way unless the directory specifically prohibits you from doing so. Plus you MUST give them an opt out option and make sure you adhere to their requests.

That being said, why would you want to spend hours gathering this info when for a few thousand you could buy a legitimate list? You could then go on to do something of higher value with your time.

Hi Bill,

Hope all is well. You can easily get all the details from some local directory etc but the chances of those records being correct and opt-in records are less and you might end up in spamming these contacts instead you can consult a good marketing firm for these marketing solutions. I worked for an online marketing firm and being worked in this marketing field for more than 3 yrs, I feel there are so many ways to reach your customers, like through direct marketing or telemarketing, email marketing, by advertisement, etc, but the best way is to first reach your customers through email marketing. The reason I would prefer email marketing is because firstly it the execution cost would be low, then its is best to reach your target audience and its legal and most importantly it would bring more ROI. There are so many companies who would provide you with the list of customers who had shown interest in these services. But you have to be very careful in this as there are so many companies who just provide junk or old lists without verification and you might end up with spamming these contacts. If you could help me with your contact details then I would be more happy to assist you in this regards.

Let me know if you require any additional information.

If the e-mail addresses are published, why did the owners publish them unless it was to initiate some kind of communication?

Why not telephone them first to establish whether what you have is of enough interest to them to give you permission to add their name to your list?

Just make sure you do all the right stuff with clear, easy, free and automated unsubscribe functionality included in EVERY e-mail you send.

If in doubt what this would look like, visit my website (via my profile) go to publications and sign up for e-mail newsletters.

Hope that helps.

ChrisB

Would suggest brokering a list through a trusted source. Although you would not have direct control over the list - you could certainly reach an audience with your message.

Your boss needs to read up on the latest Blacklisting and Whitelisting Policies.

It seems you are frustrated with your existing marketing programs and are seeing declining response rates.

This is normal. Why? Well, these marketing methods are outdated because they are outbound in nature and rely on interruption and distraction to get people's attention. Plus, the people you are sending the message to are probably not thinking about buying your service at that moment.

You might want to think about using more of an Inbound Marketing strategy. This would including helping your prospects find you online in search engines, blogs and social media.

Taking names off of directories is just wrong and people don't like it. It might not be illegal, but there are lots of legal things that are a bad idea. You should focus on markeitng methods that go after "in-market" customers who are actually looking to buy what you sell.

You can find more information in this article about Inbound vs. Outbound marketing.