My $0.02:
It sounds like what you plan is a legitiment operation. In fact it's
encouraging to see an entity interested in cleaning up their list(s).
Expect to be complained about. There will always be those who will
complain. I echo Petzl when I say "your upstream needs to be notified."
DO NOT hire just any "marketing company" to do this for you, keep it
in-house. this will increase your customer's confidence in you and increase
your legitimacy in the eyes of the recipients.
Spend good money on top-notch software with which to do the mailings, back
alley spew-ware is unlikely to have the features you'll need.
Make sure the information in the header (From:, To:, etc...) is complete,
correct, and personalized. The From: address should be either an
information drop box or an unsub bot (if it's an info box, watch it like a
hawk and speedily reply to anything received there). The To: address should
be the recipient's address, no "undisclosed recipient" or anything. NO
CCing.
Send the emails from your mail server. Any tracing of the headers should
lead right back to you. Again, this validates yourself and decreases
recipient suspicion.
Be as explicit as possible in your Contact Validation Test as to how the
recipient signed up to receive emails. Cite websites, company names,
business directories, as much and as precise as you can. Spam will often
tell me that I "signed up to receive offers" or "indicated interest in..."
and that vague language prompts an almost guaranteed lart.
Offer the recipient an easy unsubscribe option. A "click here" link that
instantly unsubs them (with maybe a confirmation click) is very friendly, as
is a simple "Reply to this message to be unsubbed." No "insert your email
address in the subject" or anything, just reply.
If possible, use a unique user id for each of your recipients. This will
allow them to unsub any email address, no matter which address they use to
send in the unsub request.
Finally, check out http://www.targeting.com/. Jim Sterne has beaucoup
experience and advice.
Well, it turned out to be more like my $2.00, hope it helps.
-Peter
[posted and mailed]
"Francis Nantha (Manager, Marketing & PR)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
message [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
Dear Michael Lefevre,
Your comments were useful, but it still leaves me looking for a practical
solution that works. Perhaps, if I outline the situation in more detail,
other
solutions may arise.
Our website is a content aggregator, acting as a redistribution channel for
information -- among others, many business directories (both electronic &
printed). They choose to do so coz we have more resources to work with
(enuff
said, I don't plan to hype my website here).
The problem is keeping contact information up-to-date coz people change
jobs,
contact details change -- all too frequently without a forwarding address.
While
it is ideal to have a sign-up list either at the partner's site or at ours,
few
actually bother (a very common problem I believe). Recommended practice is
to
contact all listings at least once a year, cull out old entries and update
new
ones -- but in practice culling is usually left out, and this results in an
ever-bloated set of directory listings which are of no use to anyone.
Our website aims to ensure culling is actually carried out, but this means
we
have to do it ourself (try getting others to do it, including many
permission-based e-mail lists!). We need to do so coz we aim to be a
reliable
directory information provider (among others) and we would rather not
disappoint
visitors who come to our site, check up a possible lead for say widget
supplies,
try to contact that supplier, fail to do so, then send us a flare and
word-of-mouth spreads that our information is useless. I know many others
don't
care about reputations being bashed, but our focus on service means we do
care
even about such small details.(BTW, we don't sell e-mail lists)
We had planned to do a quarterly validation check of all e-mail addresses
with a
simple message:
Title: Routine Contact ValidationTest
Message: This is our quarterly check if your e-mail account and other
contact
details are still valid. Please don't reply to this message, and go to <URL>
if
you need to update your contact details.
There will bound to be some bounced e-mails, and we will cull out those that
get
rejected. At least that way we can provide a reasonable guarantee that info
is
kept up to date -- at least for a quarter. Any other suggestions as to how
we
can achieve this?
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