Email Marketing

[TeamUpHere]

Hello All,
I am after some advice about the legality of contacting people whose emails appear on their websites - a form of 'cold calling' I suppose. We all get spam, I know, but if I send an individual email to an individual address, is this regarded as spam/illegal?
Regards,
Stewart
TeamUpHere.com

 

[garyk]

I have done this in the past and while alot of stuff gets filtered by spam filters and some people wont like it in the main its ok. As the legality Im pretty sure its not illegal. What you must always do however is irespect peoples wishes and if they ask that you never contact them again make sure you record this so you dont.

My view (others may differ) is that if your contact details are in the public domain then you have to expect to receive calls/emails. If you dont want unsolicited communication then dont publicise your details, simple!

Gary

 

[CG Effect]

I'ts supposed to be banned in the UK any business thats wants your emails has to sign up for it via your site for you to send in the first place. I get far too much spam and con emails these days I agree with the ban in a way. These emails are nearly as bad as all these calls I get from people offering me useless services.

 

[FreeLocal]

I send out emails via Constant Contact and basically any addresses that I thought would welcome my mail have easy options on removal. I am sending out vast [in my world] emails and have only had a hand full of removals. It depends on what you are promoting.
Keith

 

[10Yetis]

Yesterday i attended another one of those research seminars that i raved on about in the past in relation to DM.

Yesterday's was the UK's largest b2b survey into the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns (researchers paid over 11,000 medium size businesses to take part over a 2 yr period- sponsored by Fidelity and New Star)

Once I have had chance to digest and write up my thoughts on the research findings I will pop it into a new 10 Yetis newsletter. Hope to get it done over the weekend.

All in all, can't help now, but give me a few days and you can take a gander.

p.s. attitude to spam is amazing... it's now got me thinking that it is only users of this forum who are so touchy about getting it <joke>

oh yeah, the Direct Mail survey results and summary is written up in 10 Yetis Feb and March 05 newsletter (all free of course).

Click on the link to get to the newsletters page and scroll down to see previous months.

http://www.10yetis.co.uk/pr/newsletters.html

 

[Arhiann]

B2B unsolicited email marketing is, as far as I know, legal. B2C isn't. There is an article on the BBC site from last year to this effect. I don't think the law has changed; it's based on EU legislation.

Get it wrong for B2C though and you risk a fine of £5000.

I think the premise is that timely and relevant information (even if unsolicited) drives business. I get a few unsolicited each week, and provided they're brief, polite and relevant they'll get filed away for later use. If it's not relevant I just delete it. I've certainly eastablished both sales and purchasing relationships by unsolicted email, and provided you stick to the point mentioned above I doubt anyone will look askance at you for using this approach.

I would say that when I use this method I would normally harvest any email addresses to use manually. It's slow, but you can pretty much ensure that it's relevant which is the main thing.

Rob

 

[TeamUpHere]

Many Thanks,
Stewart

 

[Digger]

If it's done responsibly then it is in my opinion fine to introduce your product/service.
But real"spam" is a pain in the proverbial - the problem is they all get tarred with the same brush.
FreeLocal- As for "removal" - the general recommendation is NOT to click on the removal line - as that apparently confirms to the spammer they have a hit - thus increasing the bad stuff. So not surprising you have only a few asking to be removed.