1. Ray Noppe

    CTO at The Streaming Monkey

    29 February 2008 10:30am

    Ray Noppe

    This whole issue about receiving un-solicited e-mail when it comes to businesses is a bit hypocritical you get these big corporate companies and bored IT professionals that drone on about how bad it is to receive un-solicited e-mails and spamming is bad etc etc but at the same it's ok for them to send out printed material to physical addresses from a list they bought from BT. Now to me receiving junk mail through the post is worse than an e-mail.

    Phone them first, how is this better? Getting cold calls is ten times worse as often you can't even understand their english and nine times out of ten these calls are not even remotely targeted. But hey this is ok according to the corporates and anti-spam evangelists.

    Rather do Google keywords and SEO etc I see on forums allot. It's not that easy for small businesses trying to get off the ground to do this, a lot of them can't afford to hire expensive SEO and online consultancy companies to do it right. To appear in the top search results organically takes knowledge, time and lots of money which more often than not a start-up can't afford.

    If an e-mail from one business to another that is targeted (ie don't try and sell bricks to a florist) and setup correctly (clearly laid out, full address and contact details plus clear instructions on how to stop receiving further correspondence) it is not in my opinion evil. I for one have found great suppliers that have saved us lots of money as well as some that has turned in to clients from so called spam. I often get un-solicited e-mails forwarded to me with useful information in them.

    Don't get me wrong I get hundreds of e-mail with inappropriate content of a sexual nature and they are a nuisance and there is no way to stop it as they contain no un-subcribe information, but to put a small business trying to get much needed work, under the same umbrella is wrong. Often it is the best option for their limited budget available to them.

  2. Simon West

    Chairman at Nett Sales LLP

    03 March 2008 09:14am

    Simon West

    Agree with what you are saying.  We have been very successful in creating new customer relationships through targeted, intelligent and relevant email marketing to purchased lists.  It's not spam as there is no restrictions on business to business email.

    The challenge is that many people, given 10,000 email addresses and no charge for emailing them simply send rubbish sales messages guaranteed to upset the recipient.

    Based on what makes it to my inbox (all viaga, oem software, etc is filtered out), 9 out of 10 unsolicited business to business emails are badly written rubbish.  So maybe the recipients do have a point and those using email marketing need to raise their game...

    The question is how to persuade them to do better?

  3. Kaya PPC

    Internet Marketing Manager at Optimised Media

    04 March 2008 10:00am

    Avatar-blank-50x50

    We spend a lot of time crafting emails and physical letters for prospects. These are very targeted and we aim to include tips and advice relevant to their business.However most of the time these end up in the bin.

    Targeted search marketing is the way to go and its doesn't have to be expensive. This perception is however very difficult to overcome. If any businesses would like a quick quote please visit our site. Optimisedmedia.co.uk

    Kaya
    SEO London  PPC Bid Management

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