Ever get those annoying, unsolicited e-mails that just seem to show up everyday? The first thing anyone says in a conversation about spam, is who even clicks on spam e-mails? Somewhere out there, there must be someone with a great need for enlargement pills and prescription drugs. Either way, spam is a big business. These unsolicited e-mails can be legitimate businesses, but more common are ways of stealing your credit card information or giving you malware so they can attempt to charge you for removal.
The fact is, most businesses don't understand the two-fold effect that spam has on them. There are a few set guidelines for businesses with an e-mail list and businesses receiving the said spam.
- For employees receiving spam, this creates a loss of income for businesses of all sizes. Those tens of spam e-mails each has a price attached to it and can cause a business thousands of dollars per year. Every second your employee is spending deleting e-mails and maybe contracting a virus, is lost downtime and increased maintenance of computer systems to deflect or remove viruses. Google actually has a great calculator on the cost of spam. Keep this in mind when you're picking your e-mail provider or e-mail system.
- For the business with a database of customer e-mails and a mailing list, you need to keep the idea of spam in mind. The goal of e-mail marketing is converting interest into customers, not prompting people to dislike your business enough to avoid it. Keep in mind that you shouldn't be sending the same information every week, if the person wanted the first time, they would have bought it. Also, keep in mind that a daily e-mail from a company is an unwelcome intruder and can be grounds for people to click 'unsubscribe'. Also, make sure you have a set privacy statement with a valide link to unsubscribe from your mailing list. An unsubscribe link is, actually, required by federal law and can cost up to $16,000 per violation. Information on the CAN-SPAM act can be found on the Federal Trade Commissions website.
Always keep in mind that people value their time and their e-mail address. Don't violate your customers and expect them to return to buy anything from you. Harvesting e-mail addresses from search engines, pay services or any other means may increase the reach of your web marketing campaign, but can also get you blocked by spam filters and can actually get you a bevy of fines.
