When you use e-mail as a tool to promote your business, product or service, it’s crucial that you clearly understand the difference between opt-in e-mail and spam. Spam is a huge problem for all of us today. Forrester Research estimates that e-mail users get about 110 unwanted messages weekly. For some of us who use the Internet regularly for business purposes, it seems like we get that many every day. There are reports that state 41 percent of all e-mail is spam, up from only 8 percent in 2001. And because many people access their e-mail primarily at work, estimates are that spam will cost U.S. businesses $9-10 billion this year alone!

As a result, Internet service providers and webhosting companies are working closely with anti-spam organizations to filter all incoming e-mail for spam by automatically blocking messages that contain particular words or phrases like “for free,” “MLM” or “XXX.” They are also actively shutting out all e-mail from the domains and IP addresses of known spammers. For your e-mail marketing this means if you’re labeled a spammer, for whatever reason, the majority of your e-mail and newsletters may be “filtered” and never reach your subscribers.

When your e-mail is blocked by ISPs, it can take up to several weeks to resolve the issue. In some cases, if you really mess up, even accidentally, you may never be able to send e-mail from your domain or IP address ever again. I recently had my e-mail account “black listed” because I have several e-mail addresses for various businesses, and they are all forwarded to a single account. ATT.net, which transports the messages to the server where I retrieve my aggregated e-mail, saw all this “forwarded” traffic and presumed it was spam. All of a sudden, without notice, I was no longer receiving any e-mail!

After telephone conversations with technical support regarding the e-mail server company I use for aggregating all my e-mail it was determined that the account was functioning properly. Tests of e-mail sent directly to that server verified that it was fully functional. That meant tracing the problem backward to other providers that collect e-mail and forward it to my aggregate server. Telephone calls confirmed that each of those accounts was functioning properly, and that the e-mails were being forwarded to the proper account.

It was only after I got a forwarded copy of one of my rejected e-mails did I understand what had happened. My account had been black listed, and everything was being bounced back to the sender with an “undeliverable” notation. After determining where the problem was, it turned out to be a fairly simple process to get my account cleared from the black list, but it still took about 24 hours to get the system activated and receive the hundreds of e-mails in my in box. That’s Anti-Spam at work, and it is getting very sophisticated!

So what is the difference between opt-in e-mail marketing and spam? Simply put, PERMISSION. “Opt-in e-mail” is e-mail sent to people who have given you permission to contact them via e-mail on a particular subject. This is why opt-in e-mail is sometimes referred to as “permission-based” e-mail marketing, and it’s the most critical element to take into consideration when considering using this powerful tool for marketing your products or services.

Do you have permission? Even so, sales don’t always come rolling in immediately. Training for professional sales people proffers an old sales principle that you have to get seven rejections in order to reach the sale. That holds pretty true today just as it has for centuries past. E-mail marketing, however, has been enjoying a little better acceptance rate. Studies show that you will need to contact most people between four and seven times to make a sale through this medium. If you provide your customers with valuable information like newsletters or updates through e-mail marketing regularly, they will start to recognize your name in their inboxes, and your messages will be opened and read.

Spam is essentially unwanted e-mail that’s been sent by a company with whom the recipient has had no prior assocation. Spammers send out millions of offensive e-mails hoping to make a few one-time sales. If you’ve been on the Internet for any length of time, you know just how annoying (and offensive) it can be, particularly if you have young-ones using your computer. In an effort to maintain that cycle of four-to-seven contacts to generate sales, you could run the risk of being identified as a spammer if there are complaints against you.

How can you be sure you’re not spamming? Here is an excellent list of considerations from entrepreneur.com that says it all:
· If your message is being sent to people you have no relationship with, it’s spam.
· If your offer is fraudulent, or promotes fraudulent activities, it’s spam.
· If you’re using deceptive subject lines to trick people into opening your message, it’s spam.
· If you’re using a phony or non-existent “From” e-mail address or name, it’s spam.
· If you are forging the headers on your message, so that it looks like it came from somewhere or someone else, it’s spam.
· If you do not include an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe from your list, it’s spam.

More than 80 percent of people feel passionately negative about spam but want to receive e-mail from their favorite online merchants. This is why you need to know the difference between spam and opt-in e-mail. If you’re accused of spamming, or if your messages get caught in spam filters (like my forwarded messages did), you’ll suffer lost revenue, inaccurate campaign measurement. You could have your e-mail account shut down or blocked, and you could even lose your website, to say nothing of the damage to your reputation.

If you think all this sounds a bit extreme, just think about the situation from an AOL’s point of view. In early March, AOL reported that they’d blocked more than 1 billion spam messages in a single day! That costs them a LOT of money! And, on the consumer side, AOL users use the “report spam” feature up to 5.5 million times every single day! That costs MORE money!

There are some steps you can take to ensure that you don’t end up on a “black list” with your domain shut down because of being perceived as a spammer. The first is to keep excellent records of how and when people were added to your opt-in list, and when those who “opted-out were removed from the list. If you’re ever accused of spamming, these records will be vital to clearing your name and getting back into business. If nothing else, this should wave a big ole’ yellow flag in your face when you consider renting a third party e-mail list!

The easiest way to know for sure that you’re not spamming with your e-mail marketing is to determine, absolutely, that everyone on your list has granted permission to make that follow up contact. Still, your marketing message must be relevant to their area of interest and the interest area in which they gave you permission to contact them. They will not be happy if you send them offers for discount travel or adult websites if your online business specializes in sporting goods. They won’t understand why you’re sending them offers that have nothing to do with the relationship you’ve established with them, and your messages may be considered spam!