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Theres been a few threads over the past few days about spam and the only thing that we all agreed on is that we couldnt agree on what spam is! :)
Nevertheless there are some forms of spam that are obvious, so i thought I would post a thread about using these to promote your site, just not in the way you might think.
Spam (email spam, junk mail) originates from companies that sell their customers data to direct marketing companies (or individuals) who analyse the data and spam us!
(side note...they dont do it very well...aparently as a 23 year old male, im an impotent, perveted loser who is in lots of debt, but in the position to secure credit cards and mortgages...).
This is one of the main factors that contributes to low consumer confidence in the web. Half the users are perpetuating the spam by signing up for things blindly and the others are shying away from legitimate business because they fear spam.
By having obvious, easy to understand information on your site, that tells users that you WONT sell their data on and you WONT send them spam, you can reassure them that you are a reputable business. This is how you can use spam to market your site! ;)
By educating them on safe eccommerce and web etiquette you can help them avoid the less honourable 'businesses' and thereby raising their confidence in you (which is the main business reason for doing this) and the industry as a whole.
By making your email lists opt in (and that is having people check a box to say yes, not uncheck it to say no, and to have it where it can be easily seen), and providing decent, useful content in them, you can improve the way in which your business is percieved.
By making solid commitments (ie not just in the TOS, but a seperate page, bulleted list of what "you stand for") you are putting your money where your mouth is! :) Your users will think more of you for it.
By proving yourself to your users, you are increasing the chance or repeat custom. Its all part of the service!
None of us are in a position to prevent spam, so all we can do is conduct ourselves professionally and educate our visitors and hope they do the sensible thing.
Any marketing or SEO tatic it wont do any difference on its own. You need to back it up with quality information, good customer service, easy to use navigation........etc. Its all part of the whole.
From a purely marketing standpoint, the fear of spam is a great selling point for websites. If you can convince your users that you are a spam free business, then you are instantly appealing to a wide range of people. You need to make them feel "safe" though.
And it needs to be true....
Just some food for thought! :)
JOAT
ps any references to spam are meant as email spam and could also be applied to junk mail.
I made an addition to a contact form some time back. I added (not kept or passed on) to the text by the 'Email Adress' text field.
Never really analysed the results but at a guess I think I get around 20% more enquireys ;)
Nick
Too many good points in your piece, but to pull out a few of the basic basics:
>conduct ourselves professionally
>back it up with quality information
>good customer service
They are all part of the whole and do not just concern e-mail spam but are just overall good practices. And smaller sites can successfully compete with impersonal, deep-pocket companies and/or spammy sites by following your guidelines. As I said in the previous thread I do think thank consumers will be self-educating themselves as they gain more experience with the web -- the old fool me once, fool me twice type of thing. They will start to drill down to find somebody who can deliver what they want the way they want it.
This is intertwined with everything you said, but I would also like to highlight "personal service." This involves everything from personally knowing your product or service; presenting it from a consumer's point of view (it should be easy, we are all consumers); inviting enquiries and following up in a timely and personal manner; be polite; write plainly and concisely in a friendly manner; introduce yourself (an About Us page is simple); have a sense of humor...
And I guess this list can go on and on. It all comes down to putting yourself in your site visitor's shoes -- if they enjoy the experience they'll return.
That's enough of the soapbox for today, time to actually do some work and try to make some bucks.
Jim
