More Questions on New Business E-mail Announcements

This seems to be a topic folks continue to struggle with. Mostly because I am not making it easy for them by saying, “Go ahead — mass mail (spam) away!”.

Here are some additional questions I receive by those who have read this post, New Business Announcement Protocol…

“Can you e-mail someone you don’t know whose e-mail address was included with yours and a whole bunch of others in the To: field of a forwarded e-mail? I have some information about my company I know they can use.” Nope, spam! Because a technophobe forwarded the e-mail and didn’t use the BCc: or remove the visible addresses thereby displaying everyone’s e-mail address publicly to strangers, does not give anyone permission to e-mail those whose addresses you are now aware of. Simply because you have a contact in common, doesn’t mean you have the right to e-mail everyone they know. No matter how important you think your information, product or services are you don’t e-mail others about them unless they specifically gave you their e-mail address and asked you for information.
“Can you e-mail business associates you’ve known over the years about your new business?” Nope, spam!“Over the years”….. if you haven’t been in touch in years — you aren’t in touch and you really don’t know if these contacts would be interested in hearing from you. Unless you have had recent contact and a current relationship, doing so would be taking a liberty with the e-mail addresses of those associates — and hope they appreciate you doing so. Did they provide their e-mail address because they wanted to know about your new business? If not, don’t spam them. Why not send an old-fashioned snail-mail letter on your new nifty letterhead and including a business card with the introduction? Certain business practices will never go out of style!
“Can you e-mail addresses found publicly listed on business sites about your commercial venture?” Nope, spam!If an e-mail address is listed on someone’s business Web site that doesn’t mean they want to be sold to or hear from anyone who feels they have a service or product to offer. You’re still spamming them — because they didn’t ask for your information! Instead, use their contact form to ask if they would be interested and the name of person that you could send more information to. Include your whole sales pitch in the form and you will look like a typical spammer. Take a short and sweet approach asking if they are interested and if they would like to know more. If you don’t hear back; you have your answer.

The fact remains that unasked for e-mail is spam. If a potential contact did not directly provide their e-mail address to you to specifically receive information about your commercial venture, you don’t e-mail them. There are all kinds of nifty and creative marketing tactics one can use to get their business exposure and to make announcements. If your credibility and legitimacy are important to you, blindly e-mailing others only diminishes that perception.