Direct Mail 4
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Can I use e-mail to find new customers?
Many people have used—or tried to use—e-mail to find new customers. Unfortunately, many of the people who have done so used unsolicited e-mail (called junk e-mail or spam) to promote opportunity scams, pornographic web sites, and other fraudulent or unacceptable material and sent their mailings to millions of people. As a result there has been a tremendous outcry against the use of unsolicited e-mail, and many legitimate businesses who have tried to send it found their messages were never delivered (in many cases because the online services and ISPs blocked the incoming junk e-mail) or that they got few or no responses. In many cases, too, businesses that sent unsolicited e-mail have had their e-mail accounts and/or their web sites closed down by their ISP. You could use e-mail to build your business, however, by developing your own opt-in e-mail list. To do this you'd need a web site and a means for getting people to sign up to have you send them mail. Another good way to use email to promote your business, is to buy advertising in someone else's ezine.
How can I be sure that if I rent an e-mail list, I won't be renting a list that was compiled by stripping names off an online message board or chat room?
Ask how the names on the list were compiled, and check any sites the service claims to use to get opt-in names. Search the web for the name of the company and see if there have been any news stories implying the company or its owners have been involved in sending out spam. Check the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) web site at http://www.ftc.gov to see if the company name or the owners have ever been sued by the FTC. Finally, consider how big the company is and whether it has a reputation of its own to maintain. Large corporations with many shareholders to please are more likely to have procedures in place to help ensure that the name on their lists really are willing to receive mail.
Can I buy e-mail lists?
Most legitimate sources of e-mail services will only rent e-mail lists.
What established companies rent e-mail lists?
There will be an increasing number of companies that do. Three of the initial players in this field are:
ClickAction, Inc.
2197 East Bayshore Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(800) 325-3508
Edith Roman Associates, Inc.
Blue Hill Plaza, 16th Floor
P.O. Box 1556
Pearl River, NY 10965-3104
845 620-9000 or (800) 223-2194
Fax: (845) 620-9035
Teleconnect, Inc.
2701 South Coliseum Blvd., Suite 1167
Fort Wayne, IN 46803
(888) 420-4126
http://www.teleconect.com
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