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Auto-complete software for multiple 'Contact Us' forms

by The Enquirer
10 replies
Hi,
We have many urls that do not have any email addresses, but they do have a 'Contact Us' form.

Is there any software or recommended method that, when given a long list of URL's will go to each website, find the 'Contact Us' page, then auto-complete the form with our message.

If not, what alternative methods are there to speed up the process of contacting many people via a 'Contact Us' form.
We use auto-form filling but it is still a laborious one-at-a-time process.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Chris
#autocomplete #contact #forms #multiple #software
  • Profile picture of the author cynthiaSEL
    Originally Posted by The Enquirer View Post

    contacting many people via a 'Contact Us' form.
    Maybe I misunderstand your question? It sounds like your intent is to spam all those websites. If so, you might consider that the intent at those sites that do not list emails, well, is simply to avoid people doing exactly what you seem to be suggesting.
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    • Profile picture of the author The Enquirer
      Thanks for your thoughts.
      Our thoughts are we only operate in our specialist niche. There, folks seem to be interested in being made aware of new developments and legislation relevant to them. Via email, our unsubscribe rate is extremely low. We are just trying to spread our message faster. Have you never seen an unsolicited TV or Facebook ad that interested you? Folks can't opt in for something they don't know exists.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Looks like a custom coding job

    Shouldn't cost more than $100 on Upwork or freelancer.com based on the specs I've seen there before

    Make sure you customize your emails so you don't get accused of distributing spiced ham
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  • Profile picture of the author The Enquirer
    Thanks, I will investigate.

    We use the Bitrix24 CRM which in-turn uses Yandex for emailing. Since Bitrix claims 1M users, I am assuming the Yandex email servers are already flagged as purveyors of spiced ham. We included an unsubscribe link in our cold communications.

    Is there anything you would do differently?
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    • Profile picture of the author RefuseToLose
      Originally Posted by The Enquirer View Post

      Thanks, I will investigate.

      We use the Bitrix24 CRM which in-turn uses Yandex for emailing. Since Bitrix claims 1M users, I am assuming the Yandex email servers are already flagged as purveyors of spiced ham. We included an unsubscribe link in our cold communications.

      Is there anything you would do differently?
      Are you actually collecting these emails yourself or using some third party program and basically spamming people?

      You confused me with what you said above...

      It sounds like you didn't collect these emails yourself, you are using some third party service to send your message out to 'their list'.

      Which brings me to the next point...

      You said you include an unsubscribe link in your cold communications.

      So these people aren't on your list, but you include an unsubscribe link?

      I'm not an internet lawyer, but what you are doing sounds highly illegal.

      I hope you aren't doing this being apart of a big business because if the FTC catches wind of what you are doing, they will come down hard on you.

      Spamming email addresses that didn't ask to be spammed is a big no no. And depending on the business sector you are in can be very illegal.

      If you're a small fry, there's a good chance nothing will happen, but if you are apart of a decently sized business you need to stop. Like yesterday.

      FTC does not mess around.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Maybe your market is different, but in the markets I've worked in, people trying to auto-submit forms got so bad that I ended up investing in form handling software that has a way to detect and block bots trying to fill out my forms.

    How would you react if those "unsolicited TV or Facebook ads" showed up in your inbox? To me, it's much like the evangelicals ringing my doorbell uninvited to witness to me. I keep telling them to go away and not come back, but they keep coming.

    Many people, even in business settings, have a visceral reaction to someone coming onto turf they see as theirs and pitching them on something.

    Surely there must be a better way of spreading the word without resorting to form spamming?
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    • Profile picture of the author The Enquirer
      John, thanks for your comments. I agree with you, but what are the alternatives?
      If the contact form is the only way to make contact, should I ignore them? Our company to company communication is very industry specific and includes our email address and website URL so they can ask us to not contact them again if they so wish. When the same message is sent via email, we have a very low unsubscribe rate.
      When a person responds positively, we both win.
      I am reminded of the old adages 'Don't ask, don't get' and 'Leave no stone unturned'. It's not ideal but what can you do?!
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by The Enquirer View Post

        John, thanks for your comments. I agree with you, but what are the alternatives?
        If the contact form is the only way to make contact, should I ignore them? Our company to company communication is very industry specific and includes our email address and website URL so they can ask us to not contact them again if they so wish. When the same message is sent via email, we have a very low unsubscribe rate.
        When a person responds positively, we both win.
        I am reminded of the old adages 'Don't ask, don't get' and 'Leave no stone unturned'. It's not ideal but what can you do?!
        You say you have a very low unsubscribe rate when contacting companies by email. That's not the same thing as getting a positive response. It may mean that people are simply blocking you, deleting your emails, or flat out ignoring you.

        Most people have learned their lesson about trying to unsubscribe from spam. All you are doing in most cases is confirming that the spammer has a live address. If someone gets too aggressive or sneaky, I just set up an email filter in my cPanel to forward email from that domain to ::blackhole:: - the email is discarded before I see it, and the spammer doesn't get a response from the server. It just goes into a, well, a black hole.

        As for alternatives, the last time I looked, telephones still work and most companies still have them. Postal mail still gets delivered. Industry publications still print both articles and ads.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    It's not ideal but what can you do?!
    Promote your offers the same way the rest of us non-spammers do.

    If you ever had to remove your contact form or stop allowing comments on your site because of the constant deluge of "company to company communication" then you might look at it differently.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Enquirer
    Brent, John and RefuseToLose, thanks for your comments.

    I understand your responses maybe tainted by your previous bad experiences with spam.
    Not all outreach/cold emails are spam. Outreach/cold emails are a recognized tool in biz to biz marketing.
    See here: https://www.leadfuze.com/what-is-col...nd-is-it-spam/

    John: So it's OK to phone someone up? For me, that would be far more intrusive, time-wasting and annoying for the recipient, than putting three sentences in their contact form?

    RefuseToLose: Our list of less than one thousand businesses was compiled by us. According to this link below, there is nothing we are proposing to do that is illegal in the eyes of the FTC. Anyway, we are based in Europe and are communicating with European, mainly British companies.

    https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/busi...guide-business
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