Online Marketing Without Spam

by Nolo

Spam is any message that you send electronically to lots of people who have not specifically requested mail from you — in other words, junk email. Like a telemarketing call during dinner, spam almost always annoys, and sometimes offends, those who receive it. While sending spam may result in a sale or two in the short run, it will almost surely damage your reputation, so it’s good advice to stay clear of it. There are many better ways to use email to keep in touch with current and potential customers. Here are a few of them:

  • Invite people to subscribe to an email newsletter instead of sending unsolicited emails. Have a sign-up form on your website and explain that you’ll send only timely, informative email to subscribers.
  • Include late-breaking, useful information in the email you send to subscribers. Because it can be delivered so quickly, email is a perfect vehicle for alerting people who are already part of your community to new and interesting developments. Even a modestly self-serving message will go over well if you package it with enough truly unique and valuable content. Just keep the hype to a minimum.
  • Make it easy to quit receiving email. Every message should include brief, friendly instructions for getting off your mailing list. Even people who keep subscribing will appreciate knowing that you’ve made it easy for them to say, “Enough already!” when the time comes.

Here are a couple of good email newsletter examples. Both are basically promotional, but their content is so interesting that each has collected tens of thousands of volunteer subscribers. And of course, that’s what we all want to do! To see these emails, go to the authors’ websites and subscribe.

  • Web Marketing Today (http://www.wilsonWeb.com) is a free weekly email from Ralph Wilson who sells design and marketing services to people who own and operate websites. This newsletter combines Ralph’s gentle self-promotion with useful information about developing and promoting websites. And the newsletter always includes links to free, in-depth articles posted at Ralph’s site.
  • Web Reference Update (http://www.Webreference.com) is a free email newsletter from Andy King who offers technical services to website developers. It offers short, newsletter-style articles and each one is hyperlinked to more detailed information posted at websites including Andy’s and others. You could spend 20 seconds or 20 minutes reading Andy’s emails, depending on how much of the linked information you want to explore.

Copyright © Nolo

About the author: Nolo's mission is to make the legal system work for everyone -- not just lawyers. What we do: To help people handle their own everyday legal matters -- or learn enough about them to make working with a lawyer a more satisfying experience -- we publish reliable, plain-English books, software, forms and this website. Some of our products have been in print almost 30 years, which is how long Nolo has been in business. Everything we publish is regularly revised, updated and improved by our staff of lawyer-editors, to make sure that it's the best it can be. We pay attention not only to changes in the law, but to feedback from customers, lawyers, judges and court staffers. The Internet is tailor-made for delivering self-help legal information. Online, we can make useful, up-to-date legal information and products available instantly, 24 hours a day. Our site provides articles on almost any legal topic, and links to other helpful websites. People who need more help can buy a book or software program, download a short "eGuide" or electronic FormKit or fill out a single legal form online. (And unlike any lawyer we know, we provide a money-back guarantee.) We also use our website to promote our own proposals for reforming America's legal system, and to poke a little fun at courts and lawyers. Maybe it's because we know the legal system so well -- after all, almost all of our editors and authors are lawyers themselves -- that we enjoy slipping in a lawyer joke here and there. Why we do it: Everybody knows that lawyers charge too much and explain too little about what they're doing. What many people don't know (although they may suspect it) is that in many instances, lawyers are simply unnecessary. We believe the legal system is in serious need of repairs to make it simpler, fairer and more accessible to ordinary people, and we're working toward those ends. But as long as the system is more attuned to the lawyers than the public, Nolo will keep guiding people through it. More »

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  • http://bestinternetmarketingresource.com Top 5 IM Products Reviews

    Thanks for your tips. It is useful for me…

  • http://www.contactdb.com/ Alice Clark

    Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send — most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender.

  • http://www.callboxinc.co.uk Oliver Scott

    Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high.