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Sorry if i am not posting this in the correct area..
My employer is tossing around the idea of sending out a mass email to potential customers. My question is how do spam filters determine what is or is not spam.
I have read that the emails header is reviewed and I have found a list of words that will raise the spam count. Is there any thing else aside from attachments i should be aware of? The only attachment will be a small image file (coupon).
Any advice would be great.
Thanks
Forgive me, but it sounds as though you're asking us to assist in spamming. If that's the case, we couldn't assist. Spam filters exist for a reason, and the people that use them don't want them gotten around.
Technically maybe it is spamming.?.. The emails were provided by our local chamber of commerce.. The email address was an optional feild, and many of the people on the list opted not to give out an address. All the recipiants are home buyers in our town, and were part of our towns "greeter program" We are not trying to just send emails to totally random people and the emails are legit.Quote:
Originally Posted by JPnyc
Its kind of a "welcome to our town" aswell as a coupon to our store
I do understand what you are saying and if you can't help i totally understand why!
Well in that case, I would say the most important factors are the e-mail domain you send from, you need to make sure it's not already on some spam list, and second would be the email subject. I would avoid phrases such as " free coupon for you!". That would most likely get flagged. I'm sure somebody else here will have some more insights to add.
It's also worth noting that most people also do check their spam folders to be sure that no legitimate mail was routed there by mistake, so even if it is flagged it's not guaranteed that they won't see it.
How about instead of possibly annoying people with something they may not want, and, if they do, have to print out, which, if they have no printer would be useless anyway, you could have some of these "coupons" printed out, and just hand them out at the door.
This prevents annoyances, and also, you hand them to people actually there. If they're all locals as you say, then it shouldn't be a problem to have them printed and then handed out at the door like most places do.
gore's idea sounds much better than sending out a mass email. I would be pretty ticked if I found out the CoC in my town was handing out email lists. Granted, I usually don't provide my email address unless it is absolutely necessary, and even then I give out my 'junk' email address.Quote:
Originally Posted by gore
Not a bad idea, but one of our problems currently is that we do not have alot of customers coming through the door, that is what is prompting some new ways to advertise locally.Quote:
Originally Posted by gore
we also thought the coupon would be a good way to determine how well the emails worked.
I don't think i would be annoyed if i got an email from a legit local business although i would wonder where they got my email address.
Like i stated in the first post, we are just tossing the idea around. All the input is greatly appreciated!
If you're trying to boost sales, or get new customers at least in the door, your best bet, is still to print the coupon yourself, but then add a number to it to identify that coupon, and then, when someone uses it, ask for the name. If you're worried they won't give it, say that everyone using the coupon is being entered into a drawing for something free, or for a 10% discount card on their next purchase. People love free crap, and so you'd be surprised how well that would work.
The reason for an ID number and name, would be basically, that way, you can simply send them out in snail mail. You could also have a sign made (The crap kids use for school projects can work if you have someone good enough at drawing) and stick it in with window of the store, or, put some on plywood and make a sign yourself.
Whatever you do don't light the thing up or make it flash, that's a sign of desperation in business.
You could also take out a small add in the local paper. They usually charge based on word count, so you should be able to get "Huge sale at this place" for pretty cheap.
Also, call your cable company. Here at least, the cable company gives discounts for ads on TV to local business people, so you can use that route too.
You also can hang up signs on Telephone Poles.
Another way to get this working is to get your local area council to create a Bulletin Board. Think of it as an analogue forum ;)
An old grocery store in my old neighborhood actually still has one. It's basically a big display where local business people advertise free, and people can offer services too.
The community I live in for example, has a big one where girls advertise baby sitting and other things to make money. When I checked the mail today they were offering free kittens.
Also, don't forget the power of cheap. When my Uncle was trying to get rid of these HUGE display Beepers (He owned a Beeper and Cell Phone shop) and didn't want to pay to ship them back to the company who in turn didn't even want them...
He made a sign saying "free" and left them out in the entry way. NO ONE looked at them.
I asked if he'd like my help and he said yea... I changed the sign from "free" to "$5.00" and in an hour someone stole them all. Got rid of them, and it's not like anyone took them when they were free.
Literally these damn balloons were sitting out there for 4 hours with free on them and no one even touched them. As soon as I put a price on them, a half hour later someone stole them.
It seems dumb I know, but exploiting human stupidity for fun or profit.... Well, no laws against that. If there was, used car salesmen would be in prison.
EDIT:
By the way....What do you sell anyway? If I knew what you were trying to get people to buy, I could probably give you better suggestions. I'm pretty good at this and the fact that I don't have a great paying job does in fact surprise me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gore
We are a small family owned Furniture store.. The furniture market in whole is not doing so well (although we here its picking up lately)
I know of 2 sales we have lost to craigslist in the past month. Most people are just not spending thses days and the ones who are are buying things cooler than furniture (like electronics)
OK, yea, I haven't ever worked in a store selling furniture or anything like that. However, being a Home Owner, I do understand that it's something you don't normally do. I mean if you think about it, people who own a food place, will make small sales every day of the week because people eat every day multiple times a day. So a Restaurant owner who has a good place to eat will be busy every day, but the sales are smaller.
Someone who sells cars, houses, and other somewhat pricier objects, will NOT be that busy every day, because the same person who buys a Cheeseburger every day is NOT going to buy a couch every day. However a couch costs a lot more than a Cheeseburger.
Basically what I'm saying is that, you aren't going to have a repeat customer in the same week very often. People don't buy this stuff daily.
The thing you need to do to survive, is get something going where people WANT to come in, and ONLY buy from you.
So, how do you do it? Well, you can exploit the people's fears of the job market, which works well... Hang up signs about how the stuff you sell is made in the area you live in.
When you buy stuff, do you know where it came from? A small Family Owned business like this, can make a huge hit by only ordering things that are made in the area you live in. Or, you can build this stuff yourself.
Does your family make furniture? Or do you order everything and just sell it? If you make it, or people in your area make it, advertise THAT. Point out that when people buy from you, they help your area and not just you.
Point out that when someone buys a chair from you, the people who made that chair live there too, and make money, helping the economy, and when they buy it, you also make money, which allows everyone in your area to hire more people. This in turn, stimulates the economy in your area.
Use it to your advantage. Start a Certification Program. Even if you don't have one already, just make one up. Have a "Certified local made" tag. When you put that tag on something on your store, you're telling everyone "This was made here" so when someone buys it, they help their own community.
Chain stores can't really do this because Americans in general are paid more per hour than someone in China or Taiwan. That means costs go up. But a small store trying to get more people in, can pay that extra cost, and use it to insure it will actually sell.
You can also run ads in the paper saying you're having a sale. Most business people sell things for 3 times what they paid for it. That's kind of a business 101 but for some reason I rarely seem to find it in use the right way.
If you allow a smaller profit once in a while with a sale, you're more likely to sell things and make room for new product. Also, do you have any super high end stuff? The multi thousands of dollars costing stuff only certain people buy? It's specialty items that make you stand out, and if you don't have anything to stand out, you're just another choice.
http://www.google.co.in/search?clien...utf-8&oe=utf-8
Off topic:
Client = OPERA (RULES !)
Hmmmm..............."to spam or not to spam, that is the question................"
I guess it is a matter of personal opinion as to the dividing line between spam and legitimate advertising? Personally I see no difference between an e-mail and something stuffed through my letter box.
You certainly need to be very wary of what you put in the e-mail header, and avoid anything that sounds in the least bit "commercial"
I would go for "Welcome as a new resident of xyzville" or whatever ;)
I would also can the idea of a coupon attachment...............give them a code to quote in the body of the e-mail ;)................. hell you just want to get them in the store right? That gets round the no printer/ run out of ink issue?
Yeah....We decided against the coupon! No attachments or embeding in the email, just a short paragraph welcoming them to our town and a couple lines about our store/sale.
We have done alot of "private letter sales" through snail mail. There are always a few people who mail us back and ask us to remove them from our list (although we always hired a local printing company to print and mail so the address list was never from us).
All good points posted here. I have my fingers crossed for a sucessful sale but only time will tell.