Do Bulk Email Senders Really Work

[electronic cigarette]

Hello all,
Can anyone tell me whether email blast websites are scams or not. Some say they send millions of opt in emails for a fee of about £25.
Is this too good to be true?
Is it just a scam?
because it is very tempting to be able to reach millions just like that through emails.

[Brian Turner]

Not had any good experience here - last time I tried an "opt in" system, I got autoresponders from Amazon and Microsoft HQ's - even though I was apparently targeting Yorkshire only.

Personally, wouldn't trust email lists with a barge pole, unless I had a clear idea how it was all collected. Otherwise, it's too easy to use an email harvester or simply resell Yellow Pages or similar information, and therefore end up with a very poor result.

[JohnNightingale]

Have tried and it doesn't work. Save your money for something else.

[JedWylie]

Hi,

You probably ought to consider the relevance of mass email marketing. Opt-ins tend to deliver you a far more targeted database because they are people who have actively agreed to you marketing to them. (As opposed to an email coming out of the blue into your mail box.)

If you still want to try that approach, take a sample set (say 500) and send them 2-3 emails inviting them to sign up to a free giveaway, like a health report on smoking, for example. That way you get them to voluntarily sign-up to your email marketing.

Hope this helps.

Jed.

[WebBizIdeas.com]

Hi,

Has anyone had success with "cold emailing." What I mean by that is instead of cold calling business (i.e. calling a select group of individuals or companies based on your target market) emailing that same group?

Our company has been experimenting with "cold emailing" not by sending mass emails, but through contact forms. We find that our ROI is much higher and our response rate is higher than cold calling.

Jeff

[JedWylie]

Hi Jeff,

That sounds interesting. Could you elaborate more on how you are using contact forms to do this?

Cheers, Jed.

[Frantic Fish]

With a bot most likely and it only works on forms that don't have a decent captcha or some sort of question for a human (i.e. what is three plus 8?) that you enter your answer to before the form will post. That's still quite a lot of forms though.

I personally tend to bin unsolicited mail; I do at least read it if it comes through a form but that's only because it comes to a different mailbox.

I have however bought quite often from relevant partner offers in newsletters I subscribe to, so personally I'd recommend that as means of getting more eyes on your business. As suggested, a special offer to catch interest and get them on your site and then you get them to sign up on your list of their own volition if they buy / bookmark etc.

[dannels]

My view is you get a low response rate and potentially damage your brand as people receive unsolicited email from you (often they don't remember 'opting in')

Spend your cash elsewhere...

Dave

[underpressure]

I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever (is that enough) use SPAM ('cause that's what it is).

In the past I did 'test the water' with a mailing list company and found them completely deceitful. We contacted some of the email's provided by them and asked had they oped into a list, of course they we're surprised they were on a list. The companies providing these lists tend to hide behind outsources call centers and if you call back with an issue nobody from the 'company' will be available. In hindsight it was pretty stupid, I can't imagine anyone 'opting in' to be bombarded with junk mail, can you ? Any kind of spamming is a nuisance and (apart from the fact that it's not legal) you run the risk of generating a lasting negative view of your business. On principal I never deal with any company which has spammed me.

If I was going to do some promoting via email I would look for a trusted website/periodical which provides a useful monthly newsletter/e-zine targeted at the demographic I was looking to reach.

[underpressure]

Originally Posted by WebBizIdeas.com

Hi,

Our company has been experimenting with "cold emailing" not by sending mass emails, but through contact forms. We find that our ROI is much higher and our response rate is higher than cold calling.

Jeff

So you are one of those P****S who generates spam on forums, contact forms, support sites etc.. how annoying you are! Thank the lord for capcha (as annoying as they are)