Let’s Be Honest About Building Email Lists

Often when people ask me “What do you do?” I say something like: “I do online publishing, promotion and advertising for companies” and one response I often get is “Oh you mean you do that email spam stuff?”

Well, no that is not what I mean, but the sad truth is that email marketing has gotten a bad name because spammers indiscriminately send out millions of unsolicited email messages.

In spite of the abuse known as spam, the fact remains that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to communicate with people online - and that includes advertising and promotion - communicating information about products and services.

The reason is simple: there is no better or less expensive way to get your message directly in front of real people interested in buying what you have to offer.

Legitimate Email Marketing Strategies

Let me reemphasize that I am not talking about email spam here. As I use the term, “email spam” means “inappropriately sending email messages to large numbers of people (email addresses) who you have no legitimate right to send them to.”

In spite of what many online marketers have been told, this does not mean that you can only send advertising messages to people who have “opted in” to your list. I know it is sacreligious to say this, but the fact is, current US law, namely the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, does not say you can only send commercial email messages (advertising) to people who have opted-in to your list.

What it does say is, in summary:

1. Your “from” and “subject” lines must be truthful and accurate.
2. You must include a legitimate physical address of the publisher and/or advertiser.
3. Each message must contain a visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism.
4. “Adult” oriented messages must be labeled as such in the subject line.
4. You cannot send to “harvested”* email addresses.*

In other words, as long as you are truthful in your message, include a real physical address and an opt-out mechanism, and don’t use “harvested” email addresses, you are in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act.

Is Opt-In Really Superior?

So what the CAN-SPAM Act does is it puts the onus on the recipient of the message to “opt-out”, and it attaches penalties to advertisers who do not honor the opt-out requests in a timely manner. Opting-out is where the action is with the CAN-SPAM Act, not opting-in.

Having said that, most internet marketers claim to believe that building a true “opt-in” list is the ultimate objective from the marketing point of view. It is better because (in theory) people who have requested to be on your list are much more accurately “targeted” and are therefore (in theory) much more likely to buy your products. According to the orthodox theory, they are more accurately targeted because they have actually requested to be on your list.

But there are problems with the “opt-in” theory as it is applied in practice.

First, many marketers get you on their “opt-in” list by offering a freebie - a free report, ebook, video, or software program. Once you are on their list they assume that gives them “permission” to send you whatever promotional messages they want.

But this is a murky assumption to say the least. What they are really trying to do is not get your “permission”, but simply an operational email address - one that you actually use. After that point their rationale for continuing to send you messages you had no idea you were agreeing to is “Well, you can always unsubscribe, can’t you?”

And that is exactly the same rationale given by the person using a non-opt-in list: “Well, you can always unsubscribe, can’t you?”

Second, most opt-in lists are not nearly as targeted as they claim to be. For example, it is a common practice among internet marketers to build a list based on a free sample of Product A - let’s say it is an ebook about Search Engine Optimization - and then turn around and promote Products B, C and D to that list. These other products could be almost anything: video courses on building websites, expensive make-money-online conferences, even electronic gadgets or pharmaceuticals.

Internet marketers have also been known to team up and share lists. For example, you sign up for Billy Marketer’s free report on “Writing Ebooks”, and then before you know it you are receiving pitches from Angie Marketer for her video course on “Building Websites”. Did you opt-in to Angie’s list? Well, according to Angie you did because she and Billy are “partners” in this venture.

Another popular way that internet marketers share lists is the so-called “Joint Venture”. Over the years Jim Marketer builds up a list of 50,000 names or so and then thru an arrangement called a “joint venture” agrees to promote Billy’s products to his list in exchange for a healthy share of the profits.

But when you “opted-in” to Jim’s list, were you agreeing to receive messages promoting anything that Jim decides to throw at you? Well, apparently Jim thinks so.

Let Common Sense Prevail

My point here is not to suggest that you should forget about building an “opt-in” list, or even that the techniques used by internet marketers are somehow illegitimate. My point is that there isn’t much difference between a properly run email campaign sent to an opt-in list and a similarly properly run campaign sent to a non-opt-in list. My own experience with lists is that they are very useful, and can be very profitable. But I have not been convinced that “opt-in” lists are automatically better than some of the alternatives.

For example, if you were selling web design services and wanted to focus on your local market, would an email list of local businesses be useful? Yes of course you would have to develop a tactful, well-thought-out campaign. But surely such a campaign could yield impressive results if conducted properly.

Or let’s say you had a product targeted at accountants. Would a list of 25,000 accountants be useful? Of course it would.

Would you be engaging in “spamming” if you sent “unsolicited” messages to that list? Well, according to the CAN-SPAM act you would only be spamming if you did not comply with their rules (see above). And if the campaign was conducted in a sensible way it could be very fruitful indeed.

References:
*According to the CAN-SPAM act a “harvested” email address is one that is acquired using an automated collection or extraction system.

For more details on the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, see this Wikipedia article.

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