Hello All,

What can be done to keep advertising our soliciting messages for our services out of the spam box when we do an email campaign? How well do email campaigns work?

If you use a service like Constant Contact, it actually has a spam checker to see if your message will get thrown in the spam/junk folders. Whatever you do, don't do massive amounts of email blasts from within your own account - you could get shut down for at least 24 hours by your ISP. Also, be sure that you have permission from the recipients to send messages to them.

Julia's right - don't ever send mass emails through your own mail server - not only can you get shut down but you'll end up on a nasty blacklist that can be difficult to be removed from.

Email newsletter programs like Constant Contact, Email Brain, Vertical Response (my personal favorite) etc. all follow the spam laws and provide feedback on the possibility of your email being sent to the trash bin. BUT, no matter how hard you try a percentage will undoubtedly go to waste.

You can advise people who sign up at your site for your newsletter and/or agree to rec'v emails from your company to add your domain to their 'safe list', 'whitelist' or 'allow list' etc. - this will make a big difference in how many get through.

As to the effectiveness, it's like anything else - the more professionally presented, the more value you're actually offering the recipient, the more effective a campaign will be.

I run newsletters for numerous clients with an ad thrown in here and there and the results are always better for clients who provide solid, viable content on a consistent basis. Clients who ONLY focus on sending out ads get a pretty poor return in comparison.

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Please read the Can Spam laws before beginning any email blasts. Basically, what you are planning on doing is spamming your potential customers. This is illegal in most States and there are heavy fines. That's why you must have permission from the recipient. Not to mention the fact that most of your prospective customers will likely be turned off you and I'm sure that's not your intention. However, if your prospective clients are local, a direct mail campaign would be better; a letter or postcard type of mailing. There's nothing illegal about that yet

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

I don't have too much more to add, but there are marketing companies out there that have email lists available that are opt-in. I have no idea about the accuracy though. I did some brief research for a client that I am working with.

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Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

Originally Posted by VBP

I don't have too much more to add, but there are marketing companies out there that have email lists available that are opt-in. I have no idea about the accuracy though. I did some brief research for a client that I am working with.

That's true but you should research who you are buying the lists from and make sure the lists match your target market.

IMHO

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

I am offering email campaign maintenance as one of my services, but I intend to use only the clients opt-in mailing list. That should cover them and me under spam laws, right?

Debra Nail

I guess I better do some research on that. I'm not sure where to start as far as gaining client's permission. I was thinking of compiling an email list of potential customers from a target and sending them an intro message. However, I was going to do it in the form of an email merge so that it would be personalized and professional. Thanks for the feedback!

Originally Posted by debsoffice08

I am offering email campaign maintenance as one of my services, but I intend to use only the clients opt-in mailing list. That should cover them and me under spam laws, right? Debra Nail

Yes Debra, as long as the people have actively signed up for or agreed in some other way to rec'v emails from your clients it's legal.
Also - there has to be a way for them to opt out easily, in order to be CANSPAM compliant.

Not sure if this was linked already, but here's a link to the CANSPAM laws.
And the Wiki info on CANSPAM.

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I have been concerned about doing an email campaign as well and being from Canada I decided to look up the laws regarding spam and to my surprise there are none! This is what was said on the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic http://www.cippic.ca/spam/
The distribution of unsolicited promotional and product information over electronic networks per se is neither illegal nor regulated in Canada. However, fraudulent practices and misleading representations are illegal, and privacy laws require an individual's consent to the collection and use of their e-mail address where it can be traced to them.

privacy laws require an individual's consent to the collection and use of their e-mail address where it can be traced to them

It's the consent to collection and use that's the kicker there though - it leaves the email-sender wide open to interpretation by the rec'ving party. Interesting though that Canada doesn't have any legislation - not as law-suit addicted as the States I guess

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I spoke with a representative from a company in Ottawa that sells a newsletter service and he advised that we are subject to the same anti-spam laws as the US, so I've always worked on that basis.

What IF you were to send out individual emails to say members of the local chamber of commerce introducing yourself, you have your full street address listed and have a little opt-out clause at the end of the email? Would that be considered CANSPAM complient?

I have been wondering about that because I have applied to ads on Craigslist and then mysteriously started to receive marketing info from new companies via email and noticed the opt-out at the bottom of the email.

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
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Originally Posted by vainparadise

What IF you were to send out individual emails to say members of the local chamber of commerce introducing yourself, you have your full street address listed and have a little opt-out clause at the end of the email? Would that be considered CANSPAM complient? I have been wondering about that because I have applied to ads on Craigslist and then mysteriously started to receive marketing info from new companies via email and noticed the opt-out at the bottom of the email.

I would check the laws for your State but if you were to do what you have outlined above I believe it would be fine as long as you immediately remove any person who wants off your list. I'm not sure of the exact number of hours you have to remove unwanted subscribers but the sooner the better. The FTC, while the official watchdog of the internet, only has so much control over SPAM. That's why individual States have tried to make their own laws surrounding it. So, if you live in Florida the law might not let you send spam to other residents of Florida but that doesn't mean that someone from another State can't send you Spam and vice versa. Does that make sense? That's why its important to include opt-out and adhere to it. It can keep you out of trouble all the way around.

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

I am not planning on doing it just wondering if would comply. I use Verticle Response and love them, but for others that are just starting out could it be an option?

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better