I have worked with a group that does "email marketing". Is there a difference between this and spam ? Some would say no....
If the recipients can't tell the difference between your mailings and spam, then it will be treated as spam.
They have a policy that all their clients should have fully qualified (opted in) lists, any client found to be breaking this rule becomes an ex-client.
Spammers play word games, redefining "opt-in" for their convenience. Without a clear description of how recipients become "fully qualified" and "opted in" your claims are meaningless.
If your recipients can't tell your mailings from all those others that lied to them, saying they opted in when in fact they had not, then they will treat your mailings the same as those others.
Their clients aren't selling viagra, or university degrees, they run legitimate businesses..
Absolutely irrelevant.
They actually have a remove option that actually does get you removed from the list.
The recipients can't tell an honestly run remove list from a dishonestly run remove list, and can pay a severe penalty for stepping into the trap of responding to a dishonest one. So they will treat an honest remove list just like a dishonest one.
Email marketing has the ability if properly regulated and controlled to give marketers unprecedented value and give customers unprecedented service.
Email lists existed before spam, and people subscribed voluntarily. Email lists did not enroll users against their will then allow their conscripted "members" to ask for removal. Mailing lists like this still exist, and required no regulation because they never become a problem.
Your mailings and methods must have become a problem, otherwise I don't think you'd be here arguing and justifying yourself.
It also has the potential to save thousands of tree's by avoiding the wasteful use of paper to disseminate information.
"Like it or not, at one time or another you didn't read a privacy notice and your email address was sold to another company."
On a daily or almost daily basis, crooks send us lies in our email. I get told that I subscribed when if fact I did not. I get told I was referred by a friend, but the friend is never named. I get told that I signed up at an "affiliated site", also never named. And, yes, sometimes I even get told that I signed up for a list that I should have known would be sold. All these lies arrive at addresses that I know I have never entered into any web site.
Let me explain something about myself: I learned about the dishonesty of spammers long before I learned how to browse the web. When I started browsing I was well-prepared. I didn't use the browser for email or usenet, because I was already accustomed to other software for those purposes. To prevent the browser from leaking my identity somehow to web sites I visited, I configured a false email address into it, and ran it only from a second unrevealed account on my workstation. I bought train tickets over the web for a while. When the railway changed their web site to *require* my email address, I stopped buying tickets over the web. I have never bought anything else over the web.
When I say I never signed up for the junk email, I know whereof I speak.
If you are trying to do an honest business in email marketing, you must understand the poisoned environment you are working in: On a daily or almost daily basis, crooks send us lies in our email. When *you* advertise by email, you are seen in the company of crooks. From the viewpoint of the recipients of your email, what distinguishes you from the crooks? If you are trying to be honest, you have to be very careful to avoid being taken for, and treated as, one of the crooks.
Crooks send us email we don't remember signing up for, because in fact we didn't sign up for it. Crooks often tell us we must have signed up and forgotten about it, so if you tell us that you sound just like the crooks. You must make it as easy as possible for people to remember the process of signing up, and exactly what they signed up for. They must know in advance what email address the messages will come from -- this rules out "affiliated" web sites (a favourite spammer lie) and purchased "opt-in" lists (another favourite lie.)
Crooks avoid verifiable claims -- referrals from unnamed friends and signups at unnamed "affiliated" web sites are unverifiable, which is why spammers love them so much. When people sign up at your web site, they should be sent an email explaining what they are agreeing to by signing up, and should not be signed up until they have returned an email confirmation. This makes it possible for them to verify at a later date what they signed up for, because you can't change the email that you sent them. If this information was only on your web site, they can't verify it because you can change it at any time.
Slashdot Mirror
I have worked with a group that does "email marketing". Is there a difference between this and spam ? Some would say no....
If the recipients can't tell the difference between your mailings and spam, then it will be treated as spam.
They have a policy that all their clients should have fully qualified (opted in) lists, any client found to be breaking this rule becomes an ex-client.
Spammers play word games, redefining "opt-in" for their convenience. Without a clear description of how recipients become "fully qualified" and "opted in" your claims are meaningless.
If your recipients can't tell your mailings from all those others that lied to them, saying they opted in when in fact they had not, then they will treat your mailings the same as those others.
Their clients aren't selling viagra, or university degrees, they run legitimate businesses..
Absolutely irrelevant.
They actually have a remove option that actually does get you removed from the list.
The recipients can't tell an honestly run remove list from a dishonestly run remove list, and can pay a severe penalty for stepping into the trap of responding to a dishonest one. So they will treat an honest remove list just like a dishonest one.
Email marketing has the ability if properly regulated and controlled to give marketers unprecedented value and give customers unprecedented service.
Email lists existed before spam, and people subscribed voluntarily. Email lists did not enroll users against their will then allow their conscripted "members" to ask for removal. Mailing lists like this still exist, and required no regulation because they never become a problem.
Your mailings and methods must have become a problem, otherwise I don't think you'd be here arguing and justifying yourself.
It also has the potential to save thousands of tree's by avoiding the wasteful use of paper to disseminate information.
This claim is a sure sign of a spammer.
"Like it or not, at one time or another you didn't read a privacy notice
and your email address was sold to another company."
On a daily or almost daily basis, crooks send us lies in our email.
I get told that I subscribed when if fact I did not. I get told I
was referred by a friend, but the friend is never named. I get told
that I signed up at an "affiliated site", also never named. And, yes,
sometimes I even get told that I signed up for a list that I should have
known would be sold. All these lies arrive at addresses that I know I
have never entered into any web site.
Let me explain something about myself: I learned about the dishonesty of
spammers long before I learned how to browse the web. When I started
browsing I was well-prepared. I didn't use the browser for email or
usenet, because I was already accustomed to other software for those
purposes. To prevent the browser from leaking my identity somehow
to web sites I visited, I configured a false email address into it,
and ran it only from a second unrevealed account on my workstation.
I bought train tickets over the web for a while. When the railway
changed their web site to *require* my email address, I stopped buying
tickets over the web. I have never bought anything else over the web.
When I say I never signed up for the junk email, I know whereof I speak.
If you are trying to do an honest business in email marketing, you must
understand the poisoned environment you are working in: On a daily
or almost daily basis, crooks send us lies in our email. When *you*
advertise by email, you are seen in the company of crooks. From the
viewpoint of the recipients of your email, what distinguishes you from
the crooks? If you are trying to be honest, you have to be very careful
to avoid being taken for, and treated as, one of the crooks.
Crooks send us email we don't remember signing up for, because in fact we
didn't sign up for it. Crooks often tell us we must have signed up and
forgotten about it, so if you tell us that you sound just like the crooks.
You must make it as easy as possible for people to remember the process
of signing up, and exactly what they signed up for. They must know in
advance what email address the messages will come from -- this rules out
"affiliated" web sites (a favourite spammer lie) and purchased "opt-in"
lists (another favourite lie.)
Crooks avoid verifiable claims -- referrals from unnamed friends and
signups at unnamed "affiliated" web sites are unverifiable, which is
why spammers love them so much. When people sign up at your web site,
they should be sent an email explaining what they are agreeing to by
signing up, and should not be signed up until they have returned an
email confirmation. This makes it possible for them to verify at a
later date what they signed up for, because you can't change the email
that you sent them. If this information was only on your web site,
they can't verify it because you can change it at any time.