chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in How Mass Email Works

Re: How Mass Email Works

mass email server — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:53:20 -0000

Basically, the advantages were already laid of this approach. Now, would it be possible for you to tell its disadvantages?

Re: How Mass Email Works

SEO UK — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 05:51:50 -0000

Nice article...Thankyou for your valuable insights on email marketing..But I was looking for the working of the sofwares....I want to know about the email software hostings, its workings etc. If you can help me with it....it will be very appreciable

Re: How Mass Email Works

youtube downloader — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:40:41 -0000

I am quite happy to receive marketing mail when I have opted in either knowingly or by virtue that I showed an interest in your site. You have acted correctly and have your CANSPAM notice. What's the big deal?
Much ado about Nothing

Re: How Mass Email Works

Jimbo8888 — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:02:21 -0000

I would question Blue Sky Factory data mining by embedding their servers in links via email and tracking cookies. It is not clear to end users that they are being tracked in this way when they simply click on a link on a webpage or in an email.

Personally, any commercial email that I didn't specifically ask for, even with a legit opt-out policy is SPAM.

Re: How Mass Email Works

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Re: How Mass Email Works

Tomas Belcik — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:04:31 -0000

What a great discussion on the subject of permission marketing. I realize my comment is a bit out of date given that most of this discussion took place 10 months ago. Reading how sensitive the subject it is for many, I am certainly not encouraged to contact my few thousand clients now in order to ask them to opt in, something I thought about recently to do, especially if all of them had either first contacted me themselves, attended my seminars and lectures, or did consulting with me though in neither situation at the time I asked them to opt it to my list. From the comments above it seems clear that while many could handle this sudden email inquiry on my part as they and I obviously had a prior business contact, many other, however, can go off deep end. In short, I truly have to ask myself if I really want to maintain a mailing list in the first place.

Re: How Mass Email Works

Marshall Wise — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:44:21 -0000

i lovet his so much!

Re: How Mass Email Works

Guinevere — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:53:08 -0000

Commercial email is spam if there's no existing business relationship between the two parties. As you said, you emailed people who were in your LinkedIn circle and provided an opt-out, so... it's not spam. If it were, I wouldn't have subscribed, but I did. :)

Re: How Mass Email Works

Rob Metras — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:30:08 -0000

Re: How Mass Email Works

Greg Cangialosi — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:53:25 -0000

Wow Chris, lots of great comments! You certainly sparked a debate around permission marketing and thoughts on mass email marketing!

Its a tricky subject no matter which way you look at it, as "spam" is perceived differently from the eye of every recipient.

The point I would like to make is that one of the big trends in email marketing these days around whats perceived as "spam or junk mail" is around relevance. Irrelevance truly is the new spam. So to all of the people who were initially contacted by you, thats the decision that they need to make, is Chris Brogan's content relevant to me?

In my opinion, you went about this correctly. You gave the folks on your list an initial contact message, asked them if they want to hear from you via email, and gave them the clear option to act on that decision.

If you are not relevant in their world, hopefully they opted out, which we handle on the fly for you, and those people will never receive emails from you again.

You know we take permission marketing VERY SERIOUSLY, and would advise you if your mailings generated high complaint rates, etc and your did not. It merely sparked some good conversation around the idea of permission marketing.

Thanks again for using our service! We appreciate it and are happy to help whenever needed.

Best,

Greg Cangialosi
Blue Sky Factory, Inc

Re: How Mass Email Works

randulo — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:30:11 -0000

Question: is giving your business card to someone considered giving them our email to put on a mailing list?

If the answer to the above question is "yes, giving your card to someone is asking to be put on their impersonal periodic mailing list", then we need business cards with no email for certain people we meet casually. It's fairly common for people to ask you for your card, even though there's no likely synergy between you. That's fine as long as they don't then send me the hair transplant mailings.

I totally agree that linking up with Chris or someone else is not like just giving them a business card, it is giving them your email and saying "feel free to get in touch". Maybe there's a nuance here: who initiates the contact?

That begs the question do people whom you know you never want to see or hear from again ask you for your card? Do you give it?

à suivre...

Re: How Mass Email Works

Judy-on-the-go-Reid — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:55:01 -0000

When I give people my e-mail address I think it's pretty clear that I've "opted-in" to receive e-mail from them. Maybe it's nicer to receive just-for-me-'cause-I'm-special e-mails than the I'm-too-busy-to-write-JUST-you, and perhaps the here's-a-stupid-joke-I-will-send-to-every-poor-soul-in-my-address-book is downright annoying and definitely unwanted.... but it ain't spam.

Oddly enough none of the people to whom I provide my e-mail address include an "opt-out" OR "opt-in" clause. I'm actually expected to write an e-mail politely asking them to remove me from their f*@!ing dumbass joke list. No lie.

Spam is e-mail from complete strangers offering to turn your dwarf into a giant..... especially when you've never, EVER had a dwarf.... or even know where to get one.

Thanks for the e-mail Chris. And very thoughtful of you to provide an opt-out clause as you are unable to read my mind. Really, REALLY thoughtful.

Re: How Mass Email Works

randulo — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:53:42 -0000

There is an important distinction in UBE, which is not a value judgment but by definition, mail I never asked for. What is the context in which you are connected, or "friended", and the what is exact object of the email.

I had no problem with your offer, but I have received recent promo for various conferences from people who just put every connection they have on one big mailing list. The trouble is, it comes off as negative to me because they have no idea who I am or whether I care. Is anyine thinking that we care abut every domain of activity every contact is into? SHould I email every one on my friends lists to tell them to come to Berlin for presentations about the future of the SIP protocol? I think not :)

This has resulted in my becoming a lot more wary about friend requests on say, Ning networks. I have been spammed several times based on those. I'd be careful about using the exact term "opt out" as it has a negative feeling about it, but that's totally subjective.

The worst example to date on Ning was an invitation to a site that only allows females. This woman took her entire "friends" list, sent the invites out, and however many males were on that "friend" list, I'm sure they all felt the same way I did: "Spam!" Although 'randulo' isn't a gender-specific name, the pseudo in use on that particular network was "Mr xxxxx" which is completely unambiguous. When politely confronted with this, she denied it. Months later, the same person re-spammed me with more promo for the same women's merchant site. The sensitivity to this kind of "contact abuse", and what she did is abusive (or cluless if you prefer), has created the animosity towards UBE in general and is the root cause of what some of you consider over-sensitivity.

Re: How Mass Email Works

CL — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:25:39 -0000

Chris - the reason I connected with you on LinkedIn was because I am interested in what you are doing and what you have to say professionally . I thought your email was polite and to the point and would hve been hard to take offence to.

Re: How Mass Email Works

Mother Earth — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:59:43 -0000

I use the permission marketing approach that seth godin teaches, in 2002 I wanted to begin electronicly communicating with my clients. I called my clients and asked if I could add them to this mailing list. Some said no and I thanked them, they then asked if I would call them instead - they get a monthly courtesy call instead. I would have never known that about them. I had several hundred clients then so it was a large project yet. It was 100% insightful. Very few said no to communicating they just asked for a different method. Each new person I now add to my client list gets asked first if I can add them to my mailing list. I say - it's really important to me to keep in touch with you, may I add you to my mailing list? Here is an example of my communication from Monday and I send them a link

If I had to start that project now I couldn't do it as my mailing list is way too large. I am glad I developed a good strategy when my business was young

I personally feel way too many people don't bother to ask and when I get blasted I will usually say something.

Re: How Mass Email Works

Denise Clancey — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:14:08 -0000

Unfortunately, it is near impossible to land on everyone's good side all the time. Recently, in an effort to soften an email offer (an offer that 70+% of the recipients jumped on), I had someone make introductory calls to introduce that I would send an email with the offer details if they were interested. Of the 32 people who said 'yes, please send' over the phone, two sent me a 'don't spam me' reply to my email. Lesson learned for me? Some people react too quickly to emails (and even phone calls) and may not take the time to connect the dots. And I am not going to take it personally.

My intro call to them ended with a 'sorry you thought I spammed you call' to try to unruffle their feathers...a total of 3 touches for something they wanted. And an asterisk near their names in my database, indicating 'tread lightly'.

Re: How Mass Email Works

LisaN — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:34:32 -0000

Am I totally off base here by saying that when I added you as a contact on Linkedin, and freely gave my email address, didn't I give you permission to send email to me? I trusted you to not sell my address or forward it, but I knowingly gave it with the expectation that I might receive email from you.

Thus, the term "unsolicited," meaning not looked for, or unsought, wouldn't apply. Oh, I might not have been expecting this particular email, but at some point in time, I would have expected something.

Lisa
http://www.iowaavenue.com

Re: How Mass Email Works

Eric : Gardenfork.tv — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:54:46 -0000

its the eye of the beholder. to most, its fine. to some its not. so they can opt-out.

i use Constant Contact (constantcontact.com) to send emails to people on the Green House ( www.green-house.tv ) list, and via my weekly update from Constant Contact, i see one or two people opt out, but i see 15 or 20 people subscribe.

this means that the email i send out each week is being forwarded to new people i would never been able to reach otherwise, so i'll take some flack from those that see it as spam.

you can't make everyone happy.

Re: How Mass Email Works

Susan Murphy — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:57:26 -0000

So let me get this straight...people are giving you their email address, and then they are COMPLAINING about you sending them email? Seems kinda backwards to me.

Perhaps it comes down to the non-personal nature of mass emails (Although it was nifty that the email greeting had MY name on it). People feel that if you send out a broadcast email that they are just part of the masses and feel that they are just another on your growing list of people being marketed to. In some cases, with other bloggers/communicators/marketers, that is possibly true. From what I know of you, Chris, that's not likely your motivation.

I've got news for the nay-sayers..if you don't want anyone to send you email, don't give out your email address. It's that simple.

Unfortunately, Chris, you can't please all the people all the time - but that's kind of what makes it fun, eh? :-)

Re: How Mass Email Works

Chel Wolverton — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:51:02 -0000

Chris,

I could never see you as a spammer when you're reaching out with the best interests in heart. Sadly those best interests don't come out to everyone in the email. :/

I didn't feel spammed, but a bit confused why I was getting the email when I've already subscribed. That, as several have pointed out, is a different matter than spam. It's more about list maintenance.

One of the best things about you is your willingness to really think about these things rather than dismissing them as noise. Just another reason we know you're about community.

Re: How Mass Email Works

John Bradford — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:29:07 -0000

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the email invite to the newsletter, I haven't signed up because I follow your blog RSS, twitter, etc; which brings me to my point.

I'm sure there are lots of people that don't drink from the web2.0 kool-aid that might be interested in and informed by your insights. Well done for reaching out to them.

If you'd bought an email list and sent out newsletter emails, that would (in my book) count as spam.

If you'd randomly emailed alphanumeric-combination@gmail/hotmail/yahoo that would definitely be spam.

Coming from someone that speaks intelligently about social media, participates in numerous media forms, and is someone I've knowingly connected to in a business perspective: not spam.

Keep up the good work.

Re: How Mass Email Works

Brian Clark — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:50:38 -0000

Chris, the people who found your invitation to be spam are not your kind of people. This is a positive thinning process. Don't regret it, but rather realize that your community is in better shape than it was yesterday.

Re: How Mass Email Works

lux — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:58:38 -0000

Chris - with all due respect, spam is in the eye of the beholder, not the sender. If a percentage of the people you mailed are saying "this is spam" then to them, it is. Arguing with them is not going to change their perception of being spammed, it's just going to piss them off.

That doesn't mean you're right down there with the scum of the earth spammers who clog our inboxes trying to push pills, p0rn, and other crap. It just means you should think things through a little better next time you want to send out bulk email to people that you don't know very well.

Re: How Mass Email Works

Jay Ramirez — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:53:47 -0000

I do agree that people have become hyper-sensitive about spam. I believe the key is relevancy. if I were to receive an unsolicited email for a surfing weather (I live in Dallas), I'd consider it spam because it's not relevant to me or anything I've expressed interest in previously. However, if I were to receive an email newsletter about Dallas area golf courses based upon my expressed interest at a particular club, I wouldn't consider that spam.

Jay

Re: How Mass Email Works

chrisbrogan — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:46:53 -0000

I was just in my spam folder for my gmail account. 2400 unread. Here's one:

Bacheelor, MasteerMBA, and Doctoraate diplomas available in the field of your choice that's right, you can even become a Doctor and receive all the benefits that comes with it!

Our Diplomas/Certificates are recognised in most countries

No required examination, tests, classes, books, or interviews.

** No one is turned down
** Confidentiality assured

CALL US 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK

For US: 1-801-504-2132
Outside US: +1-801-504-2132

"Just leave your NAME & PHONE NO. (with CountryCode)" in the voicemail

our staff will get back to you in next few days

I wonder if it's a real offer. I wonder if this person is just someone marketing a newsletter. Are there comparisons?

I don't think so.