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Email Marketing vs. Electronic Pollution

Is it legal email marketing or illegal spam?

If you use the Internet, you've probably seen SPAM before. Those unwanted, unsolicited emails hawking everything from get-rich-quick schemes to weight loss products are quickly becoming the newest form of pollution, otherwise known as "electronic pollution".

Like most other forms of pollution, producing spam has consequences. If you are considering sending unsolicited email messages via the Internet using purchased lists of email addresses, or by paying a firm to do this, you may want to first consider that:

You will most likely be in direct violation of your Internet provider's Fair Use Policy or Terms of Service
Your provider may shut down your email account and Internet connection
Connecticut, and many other states, and the Federal government have strict regulations guiding your ISP's actions as well as yours regarding spam
You may overburden your own mail servers, as well as your ISP's, making it impossible for anyone to respond to your offerings
And most importantly, it is illegal.

A responsible company will want to stay as far away from SPAM or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) as possible.

How do you use this powerful communication medium as a marketing tool for your business?

Start with building a database from your current customer information. Your accounting package or contact management software may provide a way to do this.
Give visitors to your web site a way to subscribe to your electronic newsletters, or have signup forms to fill out the next time you are at a promotional function.
Use the acquired data to create a rich database of usable information to use in email marketing campaigns.

For more information about SPAM, visit these sites:

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