Picture this scenario. Your company has decided to invest in a powerful tool
designed to collect valuable marketing information about your Web site visitors.
The purpose of this investment is to help you organize the interest and
preference data your existing and potential clients have willingly shared with you,
and to facilitate your delivery of targeted messages to them. The idea is that over
time, you can build a comprehensive knowledge base about your customers
through ongoing email dialogues with them, and thus reap the value of
personalized, intelligent exchanges. After all, if you knew which customers would
be most receptive to which of your company promotions and offers, it would be
an efficient use of your marketing dollars.

What has been giving email marketing a bad reputation is that there are so many
organizations taking unfair advantage of email as a marketing channel through
the dreaded use of Spam. Spam is really electronic junk mail and most assuredly
is unsolicited by the receiver. Getting the consent to send valuable information or
an agreement to communicate with customers by email is what reputable
companies seek to do. This is better known as opt-in permission-based
marketing.

Professional, reputable companies adhere to the following guidelines in order to
be fully opt-in compliant:

Maintain Good Records – Your email marketing database should contain only
those who explicitly subscribed to your offers or promotions. Your data base
records should include how (which campaign, for example) and when each
individual customer said “yes” to your messages. This is important to retain in the
instance you are accused of Spamming.

Provide an “Out” Every Time – With each message you send, include both a
reminder as to why a customer is receiving your email as well as an easy
method for them to opt-out of your mailing list. Ideally, sending them to a Web
site is usually the most reliable method to unsubscribe or to be removed from a
list.

Announce Who You Are – Identify your company in the header of your
message. Before your customers open an email message they should know the
source. Specifically, your company name should be in the “from” or “subject” line
of the message. In addition, the “reply to ” line should be a valid email address.
Spammers commonly use invalid addresses in a message header to block
individuals from unsubscribing.

Keep Your Data Fresh – Plan to email (auto reply) to new customers within 48
hours of their signing up for information, offers or promotions. This is critical in
order to reinforce the fact that they have provided permission for communication
with your company. Plan to continue the dialogue at regular intervals to ensure
that you keep up with their changing needs and that they don’t forget that they
indeed opted in to receive information from you.

Work with Your ISP – This is important as you may be sending out larger
amounts of email than what your ISP is used to seeing from your site. It’s
prudent to let them understand what is happening and always make certain that
you use a valid address in the “to” line of your messages. Otherwise, you may
run the risk of being labeled a Spammer by your Internet provider and they may
seriously throttle your email traffic. A better option would be to use a hosting firm
that can monitor bandwidth use, and better coordinate the sending of large
amounts of email.

Email can be a very cost effective, revenue-generating channel for marketing
and communication. When used appropriately it can be an integral part of your
company’s growth and customer retention strategy. Following the guidelines
cited above will help avoid the negative impacts of Spam and instead will give
your company an edge in the goal of building long term, profitable relationships
with its customers.


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About the Author - Linda Hetcher is Vice President Professional Services from Concurrent
Technologies. Concurrent Technologies is a Total Solutions Provider that
designs and develops custom Web-based interactive solutions for a diverse
clientele. In the business for over 17 years, Concurrent Technologies is
headquartered in Liberty Corner, NJ.

Contact: Marketing Dept. at 908.604.6100 or email: Press@ConcurrentTechnologies.com.