Beginners Tips to Legal Bulk Emailing
Hey Kelly, thanks for this article contribution, keep ’em coming!
Kelly Chen covers some great points about email marketing that you should take note of, I will be adding a few post covering this subject as your own email list can make you a fortune, I will also tell you how to get your email past the filters and read by your subscribers.
Neil
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Beginners Tips to Legal Bulk Emailing
In the past bulk email was seen as spam. That is partially correct.
Because bulk email simply means ‘email sent en mass’ at one click of a button, usually sent directly by a web server’s email system.
(Anything that is unwanted/unsolicited email, sent in bulk or not, is considered spam.
A postcard either from a friend or a total stranger, on the other hand, is technically difficult to be considered as spam although there are many email filtering software you can choose from to use and control the quanitity of unwanted emails you may be receiving.)
Bulk emails can also be sent from autoresponder services like GetResponse.com or Aweber.com
Certain autoresponder services may allow you the added benefit of tracking your emails to see if emails you’ve sent have been opened and read, etc. The more advanced type of autoresponders may be one that allows you to send full newsletter-formatted (HTML/FLASH) emails or even ‘video emails’.
Email marketing gurus encourages all bulk emailers to use “permission marketing” or “double opt-in” procedures. This means a subscriber has to confirm he/she wants to receive a marketer’s email by way of clicking on a confirmation link sent by the marketer/bulk emailer.
One of the best ways to start bulk email is to collect email addresses by using an opt-in form that gives away something valuable for free (commonly known as a ‘freebie’).
Your freebie can be a sample pack of mud spa or even an informational ebook you know people would want to download in exchange for revealing their contact emails and first name, for example.
Near your opt-in form, have an anti-spam and privacy policy or statement link, explaining the use of information collected.
It may also help if you include ‘white-listing’ instructions, so as to prevent the possibility that your email gets accidentally sent to a subscriber’s TRASH folder.
When sending bulk emails, do not use deceptive or misleading subject lines. This is against the law no matter where you may be sending bulk emails from.
And most importantly, your bulk email must not only give your subscribers an option to “remove themselves from your emailing list” (to opt-out or unsubscribe).
You can read more about the The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm
Another way to build your list so you can send bulk emails (site updates for example) is to build your own membership site or wordpress blog. People who want to be on your ‘bulk email list’ become your members or subscribers till they opt-out.
Getting people to want to receive your bulk email (it’s actually a SINGLE email at a time, weekly.bi-monthly or monthly intervals) from you may be easy.
But keeping an on-going relationship with your opt-in subscribers means you have to keep them interested in whatever you have to offer long enough (at least for a single sale), and this is harder but not impossible to achieve. It’s a long-term relationship (and repeat sales) you want.
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