Email Marketing Tips – Fine Line Between Spam and Legit Emails
Email marketing can be a very profitable form of promotion. However, there is a very fine line between a legit email campaign and spam, especially when you’re emailing a list that you’ve built through an opt in process. In this article, I’m going to try to show just how fine a line it is. Please understand that I am not a lawyer and ultimately, you need to consult with a legal professional on this matter. Point is, it’s not as cut and dried as some people would like to think, and thus, can lead to a lot of trouble for a lot of marketers.
Let’s start with a simple purchase and followup email thanking somebody for their purchase. Technically, if you want to follow the letter of the law, this could be considered spam, even though all you’re doing is thanking somebody for their purchase. Now, if the person who made the purchase wanted to make a stink about receiving a thank you email, I don’t think they’d get very far as far as getting you in any hot water. But still, it could happen. Fortunately, most people who buy something from you aren’t going to be upset that you thanked them for their purchase. Still, it’s something you need to think about.
What about your personal list that you built through an opt in process? Can you then send these people emails any time you like? Well, this is another gray area. It depends on the content of the email. For example, if you build a list promising to send your subscribers tips on how to get healthy and in those emails you send them a pitch for a “make money online” product, that particular email could be considered spam. After all, they didn’t agree to get emails on making money online.
And that’s only one gray area. It actually gets a lot grayer. Let’s say you promised to send tips ON making money but inside some of those emails you send more than just tips. You send a sales pitch for one of your products. Technically, this could be considered unsolicited unless you specifically said up front that the person would also receive emails containing recommendations for certain products. Then, if anybody complained, you could point out the original opt in email and/or method of opt in and show how everything was disclosed up front.
Most people will not make a big stink about what you send them if they opted in. If they don’t like your emails, most will just unsubscribe. Still, it is important to understand that if you send a person something that they weren’t expecting, they could make a case of it.
To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim
Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.
Author: Steven Wagenheim
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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