BEWARE: EMAIL MARKETING COMPANIES MIGHT RIP YOU OFF

In the past few years there has been a tremendous surge of Internet companies offering mass e-mail marketing services.� Over 90% have lists that offer anything but "opt-in", the preferred method for e-mailing people.� But, first, let's discuss what "opt-in" means.� There are two basic types:� single "opt-in" and "confirmed or double opt-in".� A single opt-in list is created by inviting visitors and customers to subscribe to your e-mail list.� A message goes out to the subscriber acknowledging the subscription. The Confirmed or Double Opt-In adds an additional step by requiring the subscriber to respond to a confirmation e-mail, either by clicking on a� link or by replying to the e-mail to confirm their subscription.�

But what most email marketing companies really do is one of the following: 1.� They simply buy a list from another company and hope that the company they bought the list from is telling the truth about it being an opt-in list which of course in the majority of cases, it is not.

2.� They use what are called "spiders" or software "robots"; they send them out over the Internet to search out emails addresses by the millions and then market a company's message to these people illegally.� This is called SPAMMING.

3.� The following technique is popular among political parties to get the word out about a particular candidate.� This is how it works: they either buy lists or hire people to develop lists of registered voters.� It sounds legal.� But remember, these registered voters were never given the option of saying yes or no to being put on these companies' lists.� So this is what these con artists have come up with.� What they'll do is send out two or three emails to these registered voters which, of course, you know is Spamming. � Ninety-nine percent of the time their emails are either filtered out or tossed in the trash by the recipients because of what they are, Spam.� Now this is the real core of their twisted logic.� They tell their customers, that because these registered voters did not respond to them with a "no" - to be put on their email list - that it must be okay to leave them on the list and send them emails. �

What happens when you use companies with the above tactics?� You are, in essence, sending your message out regarding your company's products, services or political candidate by Spamming (unsolicited and unwanted emails).

And from the polling that has been done, it's been discovered that your message has irritated your target audience which is going to leave them completely unreceptive to anything you have to say. �

So the bottom line is, you have paid good money and spent time and effort to get a message out to people who have now turned against you because of your unknowing Spam attack.

For information on Smart Email Marketing, please see the Email Marketing story on the Consumer Tips page.

Filed January 2007