Bulk Email vs. Opt-in Email

By Jim Daniels

A faithful reader and customer wrote me a letter this past week. In it, he
described his frustrating situation. As he was not the first to write about this
particular dilemma, I felt I should address it.

Being new to internet marketing, with a limited marketing budget, this fellow had
been utilizing many low cost advertising resources. These consisted mostly of
free classified sites and newsgroups. As most marketers know, this form of
advertising can be very time consuming and the results somewhat discouraging.

His question went something like this...

"Instead of making sales and getting leads, I seem to be getting more and more
unsolicited email. Most of the offers tell me bulk email works much better than
other forms of internet marketing. I'm thinking of trying it, are there any reasons
why I shouldn't?"

Okay, just the facts...

There are basically two types of direct email marketing.

1. "Unsolicited Bulk Email"
2. "Opt-in" Direct Email
1. "Unsolicited Bulk Email"
This is the practice of transmitting mass quantities of email to large lists of
"unqualified" email addresses.

This practice in itself is a very controversial subject. You must be very careful
when considering using bulk email to market your wares on the internet.

Why? Let's just say your reputation is at stake.

Unsolicited bulk email is frowned upon by many internet citizens. You may have
heard this practice of sending unsolicited bulk email referred to as "spamming."
(Yes, the name comes from the famous comedy skit "Spam! Spam! Spam!" by
Monty Python.) In the online world, spamming means sending unsolicited email
directly to a list of unsuspecting email addresses or newsgroups.

Just why is bulk email so popular? Simple. It’s far cheaper than traditional bulk
postage mail. The costs associated with traditional bulk mailing can cut deeply
into potential profits immediately. Postage costs alone can break the bank. Bulk
email is very cheap.

So why not try it?

The simple fact is, unsolicited bulk email is considered bad "netiquette" by many
netizens. If you send unsolicited email to addresses that do not want commercial
email, you can get into more trouble than you would expect.