The Mind of Vatke
Thoughts, Musings and Advice by Andre Vatke

Sending the wrong e-mail to the wrong person can not only open you up for spam complaints and legal action, it can destroy any positive headway you may have made with prospects in the past.

Staying in the clear legally (without violating your providers terms) while getting great response is actually a part of the same coin.

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So much has changed since 1996 when I first started tracking e-mail marketing. New technologies have made filtering of spam a common practice and new laws add penalties for sending “unsolicited commercial e-mail.” In order to frame our discussion we need to define what spam really is.

Most ISP’s define ‘spam’ as…

“Spam is unsolicited email also known as junk mail or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email.) If you send any email in bulk (to more than a handful of recipients) to recipients who have not requested to receive it, it will be considered spam, regardless of the contents of the email.”

Rule number 1: Send e-mail only to those who have requested it.

By sending bulk email to only to those who have requested to receive it, you are following accepted permission-based email guidelines.

When a prospect signs up to receive a free download or newsletter they have given you permission for to e-mail them. However, they have not given you permission to e-mail whatever you want to! This is a very important distinction to remember.

What they have given permission to receive is limited to that particular request. In the case of multiple requests by the same prospect, your e-mail should be in context with each request. Or if you’re really organized, your messages should be in context with the big picture. The law and service provider terms of use protect those that request information from becoming the target for any rogue marketers UCE!

On your sign up form you should give a clear description of what will be sent and how often it will be sent. The key is that the prospect knows what to expect and still says yes. If you feel you need to ‘trick’ your prospect into giving you permission to e-mail you have a bigger problem!

Let’s look at a few common scenarios and how to best approach them in e-mail marketing…

Customers & Ex-Customers: It’s ok to contact your current and ex-customers but you need to do so in context of your relationship. E-mailing unrelated offers or e-mailing too often can turn them against you.

Ex-Downline: It’s ok to contact ex-downline provided you personally enrolled them into your company. It’s not a good idea to send generic bulk e-mail or to e-mail often. Instead, try a personal phone call. If you didn’t enroll the person (they did not join as a result of your own marketing/contact) it’s not ok to contact them. Doing so is not only considered cross-recruiting (the cardinal sin of network marketing) but is actually illegal in under many state fair trade laws.

Crossline: Many people strike up relationships with other marketers from their same company at conventions or in online venues. Contacting these people without their specific permission for any commercial purpose will most likely get you in trouble with your network marketing company (for cross-recruiting) as well as your Internet service provider.

Leads from your own marketing: You may contact these prospects within the context of your original offer. Remember that prospect are not obligated to read your message and give no thought about what happens to you when they click the “this is spam” button. If you are mailing more than 6 times a month you should carefully reevaluate your campaign to ensure that your are not over mailing or turning prospects off to your message by getting an expert review.

Leads from lead companies: Most e-mail service providers do not allow the uploading of rented or purchased leads into their programs. That’s because in most cases permission to mail does not transfer – even when the terms are stated on the original form. This is one reason Leaders Club teaches a very effective non-bulk individual approach. Using our personal multi-format contacting approach is a minimum of 10 times more effective than e-mail alone and in best cases up to 1000 times more effective.

People you found online: Social networks, forums, and web pages make it increasingly easy to harvest a large list of e-mail addresses. Mailing to them is a virtual guarantee to enforcement issues with your service provider and even with your network marketing company as most have terms to prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail and other questionable marketing tactics.

Before you send e-mail in bulk, consider the timeliness of your message and how the recipient will view it. Is your message likely to be viewed as an intrusion or the messenger of welcome advice? Does it offer a timely solution to a pressing problem or simply a selfish commercial request?

Stop by our site and download our complimentary Email Marketing 101 podcast to learn how to improve your own e-mail marketing, avoid common mistakes, and why ‘opt-in’ is just not enough anymore.