Forum Moderators: buckworks
We could eliminate much of the cost of PPC advertising by building a huge email list to promote to opt-in customers (we have a product that people need recurringly)
The list did grow. Today our list is about 8X its original size but it generates about the same number of orders as our first few mailings. We mail only to past buyers and prospects who sign up at our site.
We use an outside company to manage the list, which becomes more expensive as we add addresses.
Furthermore we are now getting fewer sign-ups. People are sick of spam. Personally I almost never sign up for a new newsletter. I can't read what I get now (and some are quite useful).
Then there's the issue of spam filtering, viruses like the SoBig attack last month, and the sheer quantity of junk email for Viagra, porn, "body enhancements," etc. I get ten times the spam of two years ago.
Is it time for reputable retailers to think about pulling the plug on email advertising? Is your mailing list as profitable as it once was? Thoughts?
People are sick of spam.I get ten times the spam of two years ago.
That pretty much sums it up. Personally, I wouldn't waste a dime on e-mail marketing that in the end, weakens the brand, and I'm thrilled that some competitors continue to burn resources on it.
As an ASP (Application Service Provider), we have given up requesting an email address in order to begin a free trial of our service - people just will not give it up through fear of spam. Take away the requirement for an email address (to which an activation code would have been sent) and our free-trial conversion rate increases by several hundred percent.
Not only that; but we have to spend time making sure our system generated emails do not end up triggering spam prevention systems used by Yahoo! and the like.
Is there any chance in the near future of spam killing itself off as a result of making email unusable (kind of like a parasite killing its host)?
But I dont think it will, I get around 30 spam mails a day offering mainly sexual based products - Im real sick of it and never read any of course.
Altough I do have to check that im not deketing genuine mail which has happened.
I really cant see that spam marketings is profitable, who the hell buys from a spam mailing?
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What keeps spam going is the occasional story of how people make a fortune sending it. The Wall Street Journal did a piece last year on some NYC woman who made a 6-figure income in that biz. Those Iraqi card decks were an incredible hit. I know a kid who bought one.
I don't want our monthly newsletter to be sharing an in-box with 30 "enlargement" ads.
In my case, I'll be upgrading to Eurdora 7.0 soon...with its high power spam filtering.
We work only with opt-in lists and do not spam.
Amen
From my perspective I definitely see a ground swell against
e-mail marketing but would stop short of saying it 'weakens the brand' or that spam has 'completely destroyed the usefulness of e-mail in a legitimate, professional business sense'
Business e-mail is still a fantastic way to get out information and keep in touch with customers. However it's ability to sell directly has in my view diminished substantially. Most of our work is with the former type of campaign ( newsletters etc) and we still see a bright future.
In fact, I much rather get updates by email than by fax which I find to be intrusive and annoying. A long fax can tie up a phone line for 10 minutes, plus WE have to pay for the paper.
That is one type of email that is under-utilized in my business and should continue to grow.
and I would add that its darn difficult to copy and paste
from a fax if you wanted to use some of the manufacturers
content.
Spam is particularly loathed because it is uninvited into our personal space.
The fact that e-mail is such a personal medium is why it can be so effective but ....... If youre not interesting and relevant people drop you quickly. Too frequent and you're a bore. Its a bit like talking to people at a party, Its a fine balance but e-mail definitely works if you get it right.
A regular newsletter is expected, such as on Thursday at 11am. If your subscribers expect your email and it is formatted consistantly in the same layout they will remain customers.
Spam achieved over 50% of all email traffic worldwide some time ago; Spam is not email marketing, it is spam. Think newspaper/junk mail in your mail box. We can tell the difference. The big spikes I see in sales are often due to email newsletters. I never spam.
Then there's the issue of spam filtering, viruses like the SoBig attack last month, and the sheer quantity of junk email for Viagra, porn, "body enhancements," etc. I get ten times the spam of two years ago.
If you cannot determine the difference between spam and legitimate email try something like 'spam assassin' before you send.
Since we only mail to opt-in clients there isn't anyone offended by our mailings. And since it's so cheap (realative to other e-markeing avenues), it doesn't hurt to send something once a month or so.
Hey,what's this? Looks like I can buy Vicodin on-line and have it delivered to my house! Gotta run!
What I am totally against is unsolicited commercial crap; which is what makes up 99.9% of spam - herbal viagra, miracle weight loss rubbish and porn, all served with fake headers and a large portion of scum on the side.
We have an email list of buyers that is stored by our shopping cart company. We manually remove those emails after they bounce twice in a row, a very slow process now that our list has become large.
We also have a prospect list which is run by a professional service that handles all address additions and removals without my intervention. It is well worth the hefty cost.
About three months ago, the number of bounces dropped about 90%. It is as if ISPs are no longer bouncing most invalid email addresses. That occurred around the time of the big Sobig.F attack.
How are we to clean our list if invalid addresses aren't returned to us?
Anyone else notice this?
It's really sad that spam has given legit e-mail marketing a bad name. I see 50% less (since May '03)people signing up for our newsletters. And when we do send them out the open rate has dropped by about 40% as well.
I don't think spam has given legit email marketing a bad name.
Well, in my case it certainly has. It is not worth my time to try to determine what is legit and what isn't, even if it catches my interest (if I even look at it before deleting).
Email marketing gets the same attention from me that cold call telemarketers do...click.
WBF
