This could be a huge opportunity for them…parents are at a point where they are reconsidering the toys that they buy for their children and/or buying them new toys for the ones they are returning/throwing out.  Why not remind them that the toys they sell are safe.  Even if they don’t send out an email marketing correspondence, why not run a PPC campaign for the keywords like Mattel recall list — Lawyers are doing it or put something on their homepage that says “All of our toys are lead free.”

I don’t know what your business is, but take a look around to see what news stories could be affecting your business/industry even if they don’t mention your business specifically.

This is very unfair to small and medium sized businesses that rely on email marketing to stay in contact with their customers. AOL is going to start marking almost everything as SPAM unless you are goodmail certified. So most emails from businesses to AOL users will go right into their junk mail folder. And now, they are basically saying to businesses you can’t make it into the inboxes of our subscribers unless you pay through goodmail. But if you don’t like that, don’t worry, you can pay for a banner ad and your ad will be displayed when our users are reading their email.

I guess the good news is that according to the article AOL subscribers are dropping like flies for free email accounts that offer better service! So we won’t have to worry about the much longer.

Person: “Tell me what your company does Julie”

Julie: “Well, we provide businesses with all of the tools to help their companies grow using the internet including e-learning, document management, web design, internet marketing and email marketing.”

Person: “Ohh SPAM. I hate SPAM …… ”

So today I am going to list the three biggest differences between SPAM and legitimate email marketing.

1. SPAM is sent indiscriminately to massive lists of untargeted, unqualified prospects.
EMAIL MARKETING is sent to targeted customers and qualified prospects who are expecting to receive email communication from you because A) You verbally told them you would be sending them information, for example while exchanging business cards or B) They signed up to receive communication from your business.

2. SPAM comes from senders who will not remove you from their list.
EMAIL MARKETING always describes how you can stop receiving future messages and lists the contact information (name and physical address) of the sender.

3. SPAM makes offers for products and services that are usually illegal
EMAIL MARKETING includes information and special offers that your customers and prospects find useful, relevant, and timely.

Where does the term SPAM come from?

The British comedy troupe Monty Python used this as the context for their Spam sketch, which gave rise to the term Spam as the common term for unsolicited bulk electronic

Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject:
* First, individual users will be subject to this too. Meaning if you don’t pay AOL or Yahoo! to deliver your message, you could be sending a message to your own mother and it will get sent to the junk mail box because you didn’t pay.

* How are the logistics of this going to work? Quite often, I send pictures to our family located around the globe, I just select everyone’s email address, attach the picture, and hit send. So what happens when some of our friends or family have an account with AOL or Yahoo!? I either have to send out two separate messages, One for non-paying emails and one for paying emails, or I have to just send it like I normally do and hope that people check their junk mail box.

* I think AOL and Yahoo! email users are just going to start finding other email providers (like Google or Excite) that will deliver all of the mail they get right into their inbox.

* If this gets implemented, it is going to drastically change the whole structure of the way information is obtained on the internet. Right now, I am subscribed to several different newsletters (like The New York Times) that deliver the headlines right to my mailbox everyday. I doubt that companies are going to keep up free programs like this if they have to start paying for every email that they send to every AOL and Yahoo! user. There options would be to 1) Start charging everyone for the newsletters, and risk loosing most of their distribution list 2) Stop sending the newsletters to AOL and Yahoo! accounts 3) Pay the money and come up with some other revenue stream to pay for the email distribution costs. 4) Stop distributing information via email and develop an RSS feed and tell everyone that they have to subscribe to their feed if they want to keep receiving the headlines (I think they will loose a big portion of their subscriber base if they do this).

* All sized businesses stand to loose a lot with a program like this. According to the article, AOL will charge less to users who send a high volume of email (like Amazon.com, ebay, etc.) and more to small businesses who send less email. This will impact the sales of both sized businesses and affect their bottom line.

I sure hope that AOL and Yahoo! listen to their critics and stop this program. AOL and Yahoo! are the only ones who are going to benefit as a result of this new program because they will be massively increasing their profits at the expense of email users, and all sized businesses.

Say someone clicks on your ad, they look around your site and say to themselves “hey that is great, but I don’t need this RIGHT now” so they bookmark your site and probably forget about you. Imagine now, if that same person clicks on your ad, and as they start browsing through your website sees a box on the side of every page inviting them to join your email marketing list – perhaps for the promise of something – a white paper, 10% off your first order, free shipping, etc.

Now the person has signed-up for your email list. They have given you permission to keep in touch with them. When they are ready to purchase your product or service, all they have to do is click on your latest email. They will feel more comfortable doing business with you than the first time they met you with their click because you have built a rapport with them through your relevant emails. Perhaps they even get a better deal because you have been sending them specials. Perhaps they have even forwarded one of your emails to a friend and you got a referral out of them. You see my point – using PPC in combination with email marketing can be an effective way to target your “I’m ready to buy now” customers AND those customers who are “just looking.”

2. Pay-Per-Click
An advertiser once said “half my advertising doesn’t work, the problem is, I don’t know which half.” December’s newsletter focused on the benefits of pay-per-click advertising – You only pay when someone clicks on your advertisement. Did you know that you can set up a pay-per-click campaign even if you don’t have a website? Did you know that if you do have a website, you can use pay-per-click to tract the specific phone calls and emails you receive as a result of that ad? When using pay-per-click advertising no one has to wonder which half of their advertising is working. Online demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/WSILocal.asp?PId=45178

3. Streaming Video / Video Email
As more households sign-up for high-speed internet access, the amount of time spent viewing steaming video is increasing. Over 50% of internet users view online video (eMarketer). Most of us associate video with news providers, but there are a number of reasons beyond the latest headlines to offer streaming video. Product demonstrations, service descriptions, facility tours, interviews with employees or executives, and job descriptions are just a few examples of ways streaming video can move beyond the realm of the daily news with streaming video on your website. Looking for something really unique to capture your clients attention? Try adding streaming video to your emails. Online demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/VideoEmail.asp?PId=40891

4. eLearning
Consistency, traceability, and resource management are the reasons most companies incorporate an e-learning solution into their internet strategy. Consistency – eLearning provides a way to ensure that all of your employees receive exactly the same material in exactly the same way. You don’t have to worry about different trainers covering different topics, or some document being left out of the training manuals. Traceability – Track exactly which modules in your e-learning system employees have read or viewed, test them on their knowledge, and allow them to virtually interact with other e-learners or trainers on the modules – with written documentation on everything. Resource Management – free up time for yourself and your employees by putting your training online. The time saved won’t only be on the employee’s first day, it will continue through the employee’s first weeks. Instead of coming back to ask questions that were covered the first day, the new employee can logon to their e-learning page and look up the information themselves. E-learning Hint: Have an employee leaving and haven’t hired a replacement? Have the employee record a going away training message for the yet-to-be-hired replacement. Online demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/e-LearningSolutions.asp?PId=36870

5. Document Management
We all know the woes of having documents stored on a variety of discs, computers, and servers and wondering “am I using the latest version?” Why not make this the year that you take control of your documentation? A document management system allows you to track the who, what, when, and how of your documentation. The best part is that the system is web based allowing for employees to access documents anywhere there is an internet connection. Online Demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/DocumentManagement.asp?PId=36873

6. Web Conferencing
Although the benefits of web conferencing are obvious to most of us – reduced travel time and costs – the technology is barely used by most small and medium sized businesses because they think it is only something for the “big guys”. The truth is web conferencing is a very cost effective tool. This is an on-demand system that can be used when you need it with no monthly fees. But what exactly is web conferencing you may ask? The term web conferencing can actually refer to various technologies, including video conferencing where each participant can see and speak to each other via steaming video; it can include having everyone logon to a centralized platform where a presenter shares his desktop or PowerPoint presentation; or it can include recording presentations for viewing by other employees or customers at a later date. No matter what form of web conferencing you use you can be assured that company communications will improve. Online Demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/WebConferencingSolutions.asp?PId=36871

Wouldn’t it be great to look back on 2006 with satisfaction because it was the year that you saw your business grow by increasing your customer base with new e-marketing methods and streamlining your operations with the latest tools?