The 11th commandment: Thou shall not spam

By Joanna L. Krotz

The date was April 12, 1994. Two immigration lawyers in Arizona had a bright idea to drum up business. They posted mass mailings that promoted their services to thousands of then-trendy Usenet newsgroups, labeling the notice "Green Card Lottery."

In Net speed, the husband and wife partners, Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, came under fierce attack for using the freewheeling discussion groups for commercial gain.

And so, spam was born.

It's been downhill ever since. Typically, "spam" is defined as unsolicited commercial e-mail from marketers that have no prior business contact with you. But as junk e-mail has intensified, so has the indignation about being spammed.

"Spam is now in the eye of the beholder," says Frank Catalano, co-author of "Internet Marketing for Dummies." "If the customer feels he did not ask to be contacted, even if you have an existing business relationship, you become one of the DVD-copying, Viagra-selling group," he says. "You are known by the company you keep."

Everyone's drowning in the tide of unsolicited e-mail messages. Consumers and companies alike are installing spam stoppers, which are now built in to online services and e-mail programs, like MSN and Microsoft Outlook. Anti-spam laws are on the books in a number of states and, of course, there's the federal 2003 CAN-SPAM Act. (Read more about CAN-SPAM.)

But let's get something straight. If e-mail marketing didn't work, no one would be complaining. In its most recent five-year forecast of U.S. advertising and marketing, Forrester Research found that almost half of marketers were taking money from traditional advertising channels, like magazines, direct mail and newspapers, to fund increases in online ad spending. This year, total U.S. online advertising and marketing spending reached about $14.7 billion, up 23% from the year before. By 2010, Forrester predicted that online marketing will account for 8% of total advertising spending, rivaling that of cable/satellite TV and radio.

So how does all this affect you? It's now critical time to get smart about e-mail promotions. Do not make the mistake of spamming — not once, not ever. Do not risk alienating your customers. Do not rely on low-rent, third party lists. "With so many over-priced, questionable e-mail lists available, anyone involved in direct marketing must be extremely cautious to ensure their offers are received positively," says Paul Soltoff, chief executive at SendTec, a marketing agency in St. Petersburg, Fla. By spamming, even one time, you risk losing your customer's trust and your firm's good name.

Your anti-spam action plan

What does work? Here's how to go about e-mail marketing in these sensitive times.

Build your own list. By creating your own database, you can be confident that everyone on the list wants to hear from you. "Your best prospects are your current, happy customers and people who've already heard of you somehow," says Philippa Gamse, a business strategy consultant in Santa Cruz, Calif. By relying on an in-house list, you can identify and target repeat customers, most loyal customers and special-purchase customers. It's called marketing.
Deliver value. Customers are more receptive if you provide something of value in exchange for his or her time and opt-in permission. Include free samples, offers, product news or discounts. For business clients, offer timely industry news, white papers, reports, surveys, market intelligence or research. Good content still rules.
Do the legwork. Find out more about your target. "You must invest in the market research that identifies your customer base," says Walt Boyes, editor of "Control" magazine, an automation industry publication. "You can short-circuit the process somewhat by buying lists of industry associations. Associations are incredibly careful about their lists because they must answer to members." Spend time in the library to find membership lists for trade groups and organizations that would welcome your offers. Customer lists from like-minded businesses are also fair game.
Prospect by phone. Do not blindly send out e-mail offers. "It's far more sensible to prospect your customer list by phone first and then send an invitation e-mail," Boyes says.
Customize the e-mail. Don't abuse and lose your prospects' limited attention. Rather, invest in tools that let you target and personalize e-mail. Each message can then address the interests and habits of individuals or selected groups. With targeted offers, your response rates are likely to double.
Use the subject line. Put a customer benefit or problem-solver in the subject line of your e-mail. Don't get cute or personal. Don't use exclamatory punctuation (!!!) in the subject line. Filtering software will block your mail or customers will assume you're sleazy — or both.
Get the timing down. Send too many messages and you irritate customers. Too few and they forget you exist. The frequency of your messages depends on the type of business. Online retailers might send weekly special offers; a sales training service might rely on quarterly newsletters.
Avoid the bells and whistles. This may cause a message to load too slowly and/or cause glitches. Instead, post the fancy stuff on Web site, and e-mail the links and teasers for customers to click. You can also let customers choose whether to receive e-mail as text only or HTML.
Vet the lists. If you do buy third party lists from, say, special interest groups, don't accept opt-in addresses on faith. Always ask how and when the opt-ins were collected. "Too many times we find sites that have opt-in e-mail lists of 'IT professionals' who registered at a sweepstakes site. That's basically a useless list if a company is trying to reach serious IT professionals," says William Gaultier at e-Storm, a San Francisco Internet marketing firm."Double opt-in" is supposed to mean that a customer first registered interest. Then an e-mail went out to confirm the interest in receiving offers and he responded positively via return e-mail. Do you believe that every e-mail address on advertised "double opt-in lists" did that?
One-time and you're out. When sending to third-party lists, make sure to include an opt-in invitation and reward. If the customer declines to opt in, never send to that name again. Ever.

The secret to effective e-mail marketing is to put in the research time and effort before you hit "Send." Too many companies think they can worry about cleanup on the back end. Not any more. At Focalex, a Newton, Mass., e-mail marketer, chief executive Seth Lieberman has it right: "We see time and time again: Good creative with a good offer to the right list is a home run."