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By Robert Moskowitz Could there be profits in bulk e-mail for your company?Attention to details welcomes success If you spend any time doing e-mail, you've probably noticed that half your incoming messages are lurid advertisements, hyperbolic come-ons, or introductions to flaky get-rich-quick schemes. Welcome to the wonderful world of bulk e-mail. But it's the rare entrepreneur who hasn't contemplated all these postings and mused about the possibilities. Most of us have thoughts along the lines of: "If all these people are sending all these messages, and then re-sending their messages so many times, maybe bulk e-mail actually works. In fact, maybe there's some money in it for me!" Well, maybe there is. But that doesn't mean it's easy to rake it in. Bulk e-mail is very much like direct (postal) mail. That means it's a numbers game in which small changes and tiny details can make the difference between success and failure. For example, you may find success with a message that generates only a 1% or 2% response. But getting such an apparently low rate of response may take you dozens of attempts and thousands of dollars of expert know-how or trial-and-error attempts. Bulk e-mail offers a much smaller universe of prospects for your product or service. That's because you can send bulk e-mail only to people who go on line, whereas you can send direct (postal) mail to anyone who receives mail from the Post Office a much larger number. But while there are fewer prospects for bulk e-mail messages, the costs are also much smaller. In fact, bulk e-mail can cost you less than a penny per message, depending on how many messages you send, how much you pay for each e-mail address, and how much you pay for the mailing software, or for a bulk e-mail service company to do some or all of the messaging work for you. This cost structure compares very favorably with the $0.50 to $1.00 or more that an effective direct (postal) mail letter will cost you. Perhaps most importantly, you can try bulk e-mail for a fairly small investment, far smaller than you must make to begin experimenting with direct (postal) mail. Another advantage of bulk e-mail is that it goes much faster than postal mail. Once you've finished polishing your e-mail message, you can begin to send thousands of copies within minutes, and you can begin to get significant numbers of replies within hours. If you're interested in experimenting with bulk e-mail, be careful about sending bulk e-mail from your regular Internet Service Provider (ISP). Most of these systems are not interested in handling tens of thousands of messages per day from their account holders. Your bulk e-mailings may overload their systems, or may create other problems that will prompt them to cancel your account. To prevent this, do your bulk e-mailings through an account with an ISP who is ready, willing, and able to service bulk e-mailers like you. It's not only ISPs who can give you problems, however. If you send your message to someone who doesn't like it, he or she can jam up your return e-mail box with large files, send you virus- laden messages, and even try to get you kicked off the Internet. So always be polite, avoid the "Hard Sell" approach, and pick the e-mail addresses to which you send messages with as much care as you can. Proven e-mail techniques: First, bulk e-mail and direct (postal) mail both rely on the same approach reaching a motivated buyer who will physically act on his desire for your product or service and buy it in response to your appeal. Just as there are prospects who feel comfortable using e-mail and postal mail, there are millions of prospects who will never make a purchase via e-mail or postal mail. So messages sent to them are a complete waste of time and money. That's why you want to concentrate your efforts on lists of proven buyers, rather than lists of people who may or may not be willing to buy via bulk e-mail. Second, addresses go quickly out of date. A person's e-mail address may change as often as every three months, and some people have more than one e-mail address. The difference between an unproven e-mail address and a proven one is all that's needed to turn a potentially successful bulk e-mailing into a financial disaster and a waste of time. 2) Keep your messages on point, and a page or less in length. The best approach is to use your initial e-mail message mainly to generate an inquiry. Knowing you have an interested recipient, you can then reply to the inquiry with your full sales package. 3) Fit your messages into a suitable context. For example, you might want to join a few discussion groups that are relevant to your product or service. You might also want to maintain a web page so people with a certain interest will find you. Then you can send your message to people who have already expressed an interest in the subject, bringing your product or service to their attention without sending your message indiscriminately. 4) Keep sending out messages e-mail is like direct (postal) mail in that, if it works, you should keep doing more of it. But the big question is: "How often?" As in direct (postal) mail, every situation is different, and there is no statistical basis on which to make a judgment. Your best bet is to keep track of which e-mail messages work, and to follow those with repeats. If you're posting to usenet groups, you can count the number of messages going through the group and slip in your repeat after two or three hundred messages have been received. If you're sending to individuals, you should wait at least a week between repeats. One thing is certain: If you're sending your repeat messages too often, you'll probably hear about it via e-mail complaints from those receiving them. Once you begin to receive complaints, you can lengthen the time between repeat messages. Some vendors to talk with: Robert Moskowitz is a business consultant based in Woodland Hills, California,
who writes frequently about white collar productivity, and who lectures
in the U.S. and abroad on such topics as practical use of the Internet and
telecommuting. Write to him at his e-mail address, which is: robertam@ix.netcom.com.
This resource is (c) 1997 by Robert Moskowitz, who is available for consulting, speaking and strategic planning on a wide variety of white-collar productivity and technology issues. You can reach him at (818) 224-4224, fax (818) 224-4343, email: Robertam@ix.netcom.com or by mail to Box 6375, Woodland Hills, CA 91365. Important: Individuals are licensed to store this file on their computers, or print this file on paper for reference or reading. Duplication or distribution of the information in any form, whether free or for payment, is prohibited without explicit written authorization in advance from the author. | ||
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