My 3 Favorite Questions from Hints & Tips Readers in 2001

I always look forward to answering reader questions because they help me to stay focused and on-topic for Hints & Tips. Why are these my favorites? These questions are frequently asked and reflect common misconceptions about what is and what is not good email marketing. I hope my answers are of help to you.

 

17. Why would I want to rent the one-time use of a list for 10 cents up to 40 cents per address when I can buy a CD with one million email addresses for $19.95 and use it as many times as I want?

1. I do not know of any honest to goodness permission-based lists for sale. (If you do, please email me.) The reason being, permission-based lists are difficult and expensive to develop and maintain, therefore they are much too valuable to sell.

   Anyone selling a list is most likely selling a list of addresses harvested from the Internet without permission using some type of "bulk email extractor" that automatically harvests thousands of email addresses by "crawling" classified ad sites, bulletin boards, online discussion groups and Web sites. They may say their lists are "clean", and even "targeted". This is a clever ruse to ensure that their omission of the words "permission" and "opt-in" escape your notice.

   If you buy one of these lists, you are wasting your money because the list will very likely be dated and certainly overused which will result in a very high number of invalid email addresses, bouncebacks and nasty responses.

   If you use one of these lists, your email will be spam, and spam is bad for everyone. At a minimum, you can destroy your reputation and lose your credibility; at a maximum, your ISP and/or web-hosting service can and will shut you down.

   Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to reaching a targeted audience. List rental is expensive, but with the right list, subject line, offer etc. You can get great results.

17. I have an email program of my own (e.g. Outlook, Eudora, Hotmail, AOL, etc.). Why do I need an email marketing product or service to send emails when I can do it from my desktop at no additional cost?

1. Your email client is not designed to be used as an email marketing system and therefore has significant limitations.

   Here are a couple of common problems and faux pas that often occur when using your standard email client rather than using an email marketing product or service:

    

   1. Exposing your entire list in the To: line. Every time you send an email to a list with all of the addresses in the To: line, know that you are exposing your entire list to your entire list. Your list is proprietary and valuable. What a waste to expose it. To compound the problem, your email (everybody's address included) can be forwarded by anyone on your list to countless others and so on, and so on. We love viral marketing, but not in this case... So ultimately, everyone on your list will probably receive a little bit more spam going forward because at least one person is bound to grab your whole list and email to it without permission.

   OK, so you're smart and you use the Bcc: field so that you do not expose your list. Problem solved? Nope.

    

   2. Your email client (e.g. Outlook, Eudora, Hotmail, AOL, etc.) sets limitations on the number of emails you can send at one time. Even if you break it down into smaller groups, your email will be more susceptible to filters. It can be classified as bulk and go into a recipient's bulk mail folder, or it can be classified as spam and end up undeliverable.

   There is more, but let's talk more positively about the advantages of using an email marketing product or service to avoid all of the above problems and more. A good closed loop email marketing system will:

    

   • Host and manage your list including opt-in/subscribes, opt-out/un-subscribes and bouncebacks/undeliverables automatically while your basic email client requires you to perform most functions by hand.

      

   • Allow easy import and export of permission-based lists.

      

   • Provide an opt-in tag for your website to collect email addresses and interests of site visitors.

      

   • Eliminate technical challenges by providing pre-formatted, easy-to-use templates, helpful default content and preview and test features.

      

   • Automatically create three versions of your email (HTML, AOL and text), and deliver the correct format to each recipient's inbox. Basic email clients are not capable of discerning which format each recipient is able to receive. If you send HTML from your basic email client, some of your recipients will get gibberish that they can't even read. If you just send text, you are missing out on the lift in response rates you can realize from HTML.

      

   • Provide reports and statistics on the number of emails sent, opened and clicked through to help you track and measure your success and improve your campaigns over time. With your basic email client, this information is not available, so you are basically flying blind.

   There are email marketing products and services like our product, Constant Contact, that are both designed and priced for small- and medium-sized businesses.

17. What do you think about using tactics like leaving the From: line blank so that your email stands out and placing Re: in the subject line so that the recipient is more likely to open it thinking it is actually a reply to a previous email?

1. The From: lines and Subject: lines of your emails are valuable pieces of real estate. Both of these tactics are spam-like and would actually make most people less likely to open your email and unlikely to respond to your offer. If the recipient is duped into opening an email like this, they will be annoyed more than anything else to discover that they have been tricked.

   Providing consistently relevant and valuable information to your opt-in subscribers is the only way to get a good response. This way, your brand in the From: line carries some weight assuring the recipient that the email is from a reliable and trusted source. And, there are much more powerful three letter words than Re: to use in your subject line. For example: try, now, you, get, new, win, why, who.