Email Marketing Gone Bad

Each day I receive news and web updates from Google Alerts. It's a great tool that keeps me updated on various trends and information related to real estate marketing.

I recently read on Seatlest.com about one email marketing effort gone very bad and thought I'd share it with you.

"Founder of the social networking news site Newsvine and Seattle resident Mike Davidson got an email from Moda Condominiums last week. Not too big a deal, especially considering he'd given their website his email address for the specific purpose of sending him updates on availability. However, the CC field contained the email addresses of all 1086 recipients."

Imagine this... by listing your contacts in the CC field, EVERYONE knows who you are marketing to and some of those people on your list might be your competitors. At the very least list them in the BC field and list your name in the TO field.

I love email marketing... as long as it one component of a sound marketing plan. Virtually EVERYONE has a physical postal address, AND virtually everyone checks their mailbox everyday. Contrary to many in the tech world, not everyone has an email address, not everyone checks their email everyday, and virtually every email address has a pretty sophisticated SPAM filter system.

Postal mail has perceived value and people look forward to what they receive in their postal mailbox. I recommend that you use postal mail monthly, email marketing once or twice a month - as long as the message has value - and call at least six times per year.

Posts related to this topic: The Power of Direct Mail, Four Tips for Email Branding.