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Market Your Small
Business With E-Mail
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Article 4: Thou Shalt Not Spam
Borrow wisdom
from Hippocrates, who admonished physicians to,
“First, do no harm.”
Online, “First, do no spam.”
The evidence that e-mail is the ultimate killer
app is that everyone is using it. The evidence
that e-mail is out of control is that everyone
is using it to contact you.
You don’t want to talk to everyone, so most of
that stuff cluttering your inbox is simply
electronic junk mail. That’s spam: unwanted,
unsolicited e-mail.
You don’t like getting spam, so why would you
think others would like getting it from you?
The blessing – and curse – of e-mail is that
it’s inexpensive, easy to use and instantaneous.
It’s just as easy and about as cheap and nearly
as fast to e-mail to 5,000 recipients as it is
five. Worse yet, it’s much easier, much less
expensive and much faster than sending junk mail
by the Postal Service.
Most e-mail programs, like Microsoft’s Outlook,
include options for users to filter spam
according to keywords, the source of the e-mail
and even more elaborate caller-ID type screening
techniques. Add-on software has sprung up to
enhance spam-blocking capabilities.
These screening methods will become even more
effective and more widely used as the amount of
e-mail continues to grow. Most people simply
don’t want to spend hours a day deleting
unwanted e-mail. To avoid this tedium people
increasing will rely on automated processes.
To work around spam filters, first always send
e-mail to those who have agreed to receive it.
Then include a reminder to those who initially
agree to accept your e-mail that they should
configure their e-mail spam filter to permit
your communications. Otherwise, even with their
permission, your e-mail won’t arrive in their
inboxes.
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