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Ideas/Section-8
Now you've got the tools
and the knowledge needed to send multiple e-mails,
you're probably getting your gears ready, thinking, "E-mail
is an excellent,
inexpensive, marketing tool"! Why spend money on conventional
advertising
when you can simply blast your sales message to millions of people
on the
Internet at no cost other than your already existing Internet service.
Many first-time Internet marketers have fallen into the same trap
over and over.
They arrive at this same, erroneous, conclusion that blasting e-mail
is the
best marketing tool ever invented. There are companies out there
that are
trying to make a business offering of sending your sales letters
via e-mail to
millions of names in their database.
Big mistake!
Unfortunately, the Internet mentality is
still in the dark ages of commercialism.
Remember, just four years ago, you would have been crucified if
you were caught
placing an advertisement on the Web.
Most people on the Internet do not view their electronic mailboxes
the same
way they view the mailboxes at the end of their driveways. Part
of this is
long-standing tradition and culture, and part is that it is too
easy for
them to complain about unsolicited e-mail.
(Here's a thought. If people get charged 5 Cents per message to
send an
e-mail, I'll bet you no one will complain about unsolicited e-mail.
The primary
reason people complain about spamming is because it is free to complain.)
In a worse-case scenario, sending unsolicited email can only ignite
hostility
from the recipients. Instead of generating patronage for your product
or service,
you solicit resentment, making your bulk email efforts backfire.
The best alternative
is to do what TELEPAGES.COM has done.
ASK PERMISSION
At TELEPAGES.COM, the company running the
domain requests people to send in
their e-mail address if they want to receive this offer from this
company.
On the TELEPAGES webpage, there is a form that people can fill out
to put
their postal address and their e-mail address. When they receive
the information
via e-mail, they are not hostile to the bulk e-mail because they
requested it.
