When does spam become spam

[Excel Expert]

Hi All,

I want to make local businesses aware of my services by sending them an email of introduction. Just a simple email saying who I am, what I do and the services I offer.

Is this spam because it is not requested? If you received such an email would you be annoyed?

All opinions are welcome so let the debate start LOL

Thanks

 

[Gillie]

If it was a short email introducing yourself and then perhaps pointing me to a website and no sales waffle, I would probably read it and might even be nosey enough to head to site. I would suggest though, that you stick a line at the bottom, saying that should people not wish to get anymore emails to let you know type of thing.

I was under the impression that to email a business was not spam, although I suppose thats in the eye of the beholder!

I suppose someone will come along in a minute and give the proper legal definition of what you can and can't do!

 

[Peter Bowen]

The law (at least here in the UK) is probably more lenient in it's definition of spam than your ISP is likely to be.You might get banned by them if you get enough complaints about your unsolicited message.

 

[Excel Expert]

Thanks both. You both share the same thoughts as me. I can see the pro's and con's of both sides.

My intention is to only introduce myself rather than send direct advertising, I also dont intend to send any repeat emails.

 

[Peter Bowen]

I've just become a Ling fan. I took a look at the video on the landing page. You're so cool Ling!

 

[Excel Expert]

Ling, you are a complete star.

Lots of great advice that I am still processing. I now have some ideas forming in my head.

Thank you

 

[LittleGreenOrange]

Spam is just technically bulk mailing of unsolicited items. If you are going to send an email to local businesses chances are they will discard it if it looks like the ‘typical’ bulk mail. Be straight with the user, especially in the subject section, this can make or break your chances of getting read. I get anywhere between 10-20 every day with the subject like ‘make $300 a day’ or ‘You need this’. My mouse goes straight to the delete button.

From my experience the best thing you could do is enter the emails into a newsletter program. That way you can set it up so when you send the emails it will personally address it with the user’s name. The personal touch can work wonders.

Also make sure that you keep it simple, write the email as if you were speaking to the person face to face. It is good to keep it fun but it is important the overall feeling is serious, because if they are going to do business with you then that is what they will be.

Just add, that Look North video is up to 5,435 views. I think each play on my website counts on YouTube, but not sure. Maybe someone can tell me.

Yea Youtube counts the views anytime the video is loaded, does not matter where it is actually loaded.

Bob

 

[adam]

Agreed that Spam tends to be the stuff we don't like.

My email is for customers and people I give it to, therefore any email that is simply an advert with no introduction gets deleted. I don't pay all this money for you to send an advert to it because some little **** has sold you my email address having got it through some unscrupulous means.

However, if it was not for business introductions that show I have been contacted with some thought, there would be no business. If you write to me and "make contact" you will get a nice reply back either saying not really for me or asking for more info.

Send me a junk mail mass mailing I have not asked for and I will not buy from you. You go on a black list, if I already buy from you then you will get a stern email asking if I am really that special to you as you don't even bother to check and chances are I will stop buying from you or be more open to your competitors when they next contact me in the right way.

It is a balancing act. Some people will respond to any junk that is put in front of them, you need to decide what is right for your customers or potential customers.

But I agree, put something a little interesting in the first email too!

 

[Excel Expert]

Thanks everyone - Some great input from everyone as usual.

It has changed my original plan a fair bit, but the plan now has far more structure.

 

[JElder]

Oh, and a couple of other items....

emails to personal addresses are illegal - try to ensure that they are business addresses - having a business only offering makes it obvious that's what your intentions were.

Ensure you have footer with company name, registration number and registered address - all the same stuff as your letterhead. This is now a requirement under Companies Act, not that they are enforcing it yet.

 

[Excel Expert]

Thanks Elder,

Under what law is emailing personal email addesses illegal? I want to check out with my legal bod what the implications are if I accidentally emailed a personal address. It shoudlnt be a problem as my intention is not to buy in a database of email address, instead I intend to go through local papers and directories and manually gather email addresses from adverts.

Re the footer details, how does a sole trader fare?

Thanks again for the pointers

 

[JElder]

I think its the Electronic Communications Act 2006 - unsolicited commercial messages.

However, I don't think there was been ANY prosecutions under it, and as long as you made best efforts to only send to businesses, there should not be any issues.

At the very worst, you would (in the first instance) be asked to stop.

However, be aware of organisations like SpamHaus - if even one person gets your IP listed on there, it can make sending emails tricky. They managed to list our ISPs main mail server for 24 hours last year, so that any emails being sent to contacts that used SpamHause as a spam filter were getting blocked.

There are a couple of places online where you can test your message against a spam filter too - worth doing as innocent words can make your message look like spam to a filter - sale, price, dear, money, dollars, win, free, offer, viagra - all increase the likelihood of your message being blocked as spam.

For the footers - no companies act, so not sure, but to be on the safe side (as well as looking legitimate) I would put the same as your headed paper. Mr X Trading as Company Y of Address. Can be really small writing, but remember that too small a font size also triggers spam filters!

 

[Cimbian]

E-mail becomes spam when I receive it... otherwise it is inspirational communication when I am send it.

Seriuosly, I never send e-mail that is not to a known recipient that has either asked for something specific or is on my database of people I have already traded with. The ONLY exception is if I have a positive referral and then I will use e-mail to introduce myself... but the referral comes from someone that I trust and works to the same principles as I do.

Aside from the usual 'male performance enhancement opportunity' ;-) spam that I get I probably have more from employment agencies in my blacklist than from any other sector... Guaranteed way to NOT have my business.

 

[MikeUnwalla]

Unsolicited commercial email (UCE) is legal in the EU (or, it was when I last checked a few years ago). However, ISPs prohibit the sending of UCE (read your terms of service). Usually, that is not a problem. Sometimes, it is a problem. In 2004 someone complained about 'spam' that I had sent. For details, see www.techscribe.co.uk/ta/uce_spam_law.htm.

Spam is user-defined. If I don't want it, it is spam. If it solves a business problem, it is useful commercial email.

 

[chs117]

great great site,

 

[frauke]

I treat all e-mails from unknown sources as SPAM.

I don't even open them. Its an IMMEDIATE delete.

If I see the same e-mail address more than once, (I have several business e-mail addresses) I will report them.

If you want to introduce yourself, ring the person up and ask them if you can send them an e-mail. Some may actually talk to you and ask you for more information, others will say yes - send the e-mail to........ Others will say no thank you. This way you can qualify the people who you want to contact.

Every so often I actually delete my e-mail addresses and refuse to use e-mail because of all the point less SPAM. When a real e-mail bounces, people will pick up the phone and ring me. E-mail is only useful if I don't have to waste time ploughing through the unwanted, unsolicited e-mails which are SPAM

 

[Peter Bowen]

Every so often I actually delete my e-mail addresses and refuse to use e-mail because of all the point less SPAM. When a real e-mail bounces, people will pick up the phone and ring me. E-mail is only useful if I don't have to waste time ploughing through the unwanted, unsolicited e-mails which are SPAM

Wow! - You must really hate spam.

How do you deal with email enquiries from potential clients? I notice that the front page of your website has "Contact us: [email protected]" on it. I know if I email a company and they don't reply I normally think they're useless and move on - it's unlikely that I'll persist and pick up the phone.