Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

Creating Email Lists and Surmounting the Spam Problem

Although they sometimes seem a little old fashioned, email lists can be a great mechanism for increasing interest in your websites over time. It’s fair to say that in the long run, all successful websites include an email component in their marketing plans to drive traffic. These emails can be informal, but increasingly they take the form of email newsletters.

The rise of spam email, the creation of increasingly stringent spam filters, and certain legislation related to spam email means that marketing email can no longer be considered a do-it-yourself proposition. Apart from legal issues, if you start sending bulk emails from the mail server associated with your website, many will not go through, and you are likely to be blacklisted by major ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

Note

Federal anti-spam legislation is complex, but the essential requirements are that recipients of commercial email must consent to be added to your list in the first place, that an easy opt-out provision must be provided, and that your emails must include your identification and physical address.

So, what’s the solution? First and foremost, you should ensure that any email you send out doesn’t walk like spam, look like spam, or quack like spam. If it has even a hint of spam about it, at least some recipients will regard it as such—and will be offended. Make sure everyone on your email list wants to be there and can easily unsubscribe. Keep your emails topical, ...