Comments on: Good spam or bad spam? You decide …

By: Maynard Trieu

Maynard Trieu — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:26:36 +0000

Promotion needs to concentrate on the unique selling point / differentiator of the product you are selling, so this would be promotion through media (the choice of which depends on place

By: ill liquidity

ill liquidity — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:02:56 +0000

usually delete all spam! except for the odd one, last week one had “free beer” as a subject. welcome to jamaica mon, have a nice day.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:01:45 +0000

@ Rick – doubling a spammer’s returns (no matter how small the ‘hit rate’ to begin with) would be a phenominal result; even a 10% improvement could be a great result … for them, unfortunately not for us

By: Rick Francis

Rick Francis — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:52:00 +0000

I agree that span has little chance of success- the trick is that well written spam may be say 0.002% effective rather than 0.001% effective. Spam by its nature needs to go to millions to have any chance of making reasonable income.

@ Trainee – you are not the target audience. It sound like you delete any and all spam- honestly I do too, I just find it annoying!

However, they are people that don’t or no one would still send out spam.

I didn’t just make up the tactics I listed – they come from Influence the Psychology of Persuasion. All of categories of tactics have been shown by researchers to improve sales.

The book also points out that people believe that they are not affected by such gimmicky tactics, but the research shows that they really are affected.

-Rick Francis

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:32:02 +0000

@ Aaron – IMHO, the sole purpose of a mailing like this should be to try and have the recipient opt in to a repeat mailing (e.g. newsletter) and use THAT to lead into sales letters.

@ Trainee – … or “excessive exclamation marks”

@ Rick – All excellent points …. I agree with Trainee, though: spam has little chance of success, but your points add more and more value as the targeting/relevance of the mailing increases (e.g. opt in … see my response to Aaron, above)

By: traineeinvestor

traineeinvestor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:29:26 +0000

@ Adrian – not sure if you are referring to not needing to see my credit reports (I never have – I’ll just keep borrowing until the bank says “no”) or the pharmacutical products (memory loss, hair loss and others – I’m sure my wife is encouraging people to send me most of these)

@ Rick, with respect:

(i) any reference to a “friend” whether named or not being the basis of a referal is an automatic delete for me. In my experience 99.99% of the time it is a lie and tells me the sender is not to be trusted

(ii) asking me to give out friends’ contact details so they can be spammed as well is also an automatic delete. I value my friends more than that and am not going to waste my time providing a free marketing service for a stranger who is spamming my in-box

(iii) discount to a limited number of subscribers is an automatic delete for me as well – it’s a form of pressure sales tactic which I hate

Quite frankly, the chances of getting me to respond at all to any spam e-mail is only marginally higher than the chances of my supporting a proposal to increase taxes

By: Aaron Parsons

Aaron Parsons — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:37:05 +0000

As you mentioned how close to the line is marketing to spamming?
Look for example TV ads, we get the same ad played over and over again in each break from the main program, yet this is not consider spamming?
Like a quality TV ad that has time and money spent on it, a sales letter to your inbox with good content is not considered spam! To many marketers are typing and praying their offer will be picked up! Not good.

By: Rick Francis

Rick Francis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:59:28 +0000

>how would you improve the e-mail? #1

Change the opening- I don’t care about all consumers I care about me! Write it addressing my concern-

Do you want to know how to spend this Christmas without damaging your credit score?

#2 There should be something to establish Shon Dellinger as an authority on credit worth my time.

#3 After they get the free trial ask them to take a survey to state their opinion of the newsletter. Also ask for any friends they think would be interested in your newsletter- that way you have some leads you can open with:

Your friend Adrian thought you might find this interesting…

#4 If they had a positive opinion remind them when you send the follow up sales email. If they DIDN’T have a positive opinion then don’t waste your time sending them a sales email.

#5 Offer a discount for a limited number of subscribers and for a limited amount of time.

#6 Use any feedback to improve your newsletter and the prospects for getting paid for it.

-Rick Francis

By: Adrian

Adrian — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:24:36 +0000

@ Trainee Investor – ReaLLY???!!!!!!!

By: traineeinvestor

traineeinvestor — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:47:49 +0000

You can tell we have very different market profiles – your spam relates to money and finances, the biggest contribution to my spam folder is pharmacutical products.

If you are going to sell something using spam, the things that will create some chance of me responding (positively) are (i) relevant to me (ii) short and to the point (iii) includes something that is free (iv) has an imbedded link to make the reply easy (v) avoids exaggerated claims, logical fallacies and excessive exclamation marks (vi) does not ask for personal information (vii) is well written.

Your example is an automatic delete for me – I don’t need credit reports.