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Is Mass Emailing Spam?

by steveperch
5 replies
Hi all,

I am interested in contacting small business about my site design and SEO services. I am curious if I gather a bunch of their email addresses from the net and then email them whether or not this is LEGALLY considered spam. Your feedback is much appreciated.
#emailing #mass #spam
  • Profile picture of the author Victoria Gates
    Not if you email just a few of them each day. Id stick to 10-15 per day max. I would also make the letters personal (i.e I noticed your Le Cafe website while browsing and noticed you did not have an updated menu.) Something that shows them your not spamming and actually know something about their site.
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    Victoria Gates - Digital Marketing Specialist
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  • Profile picture of the author vip
    Hi Steve,

    First a good read is the actual CanSpam Act:
    CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business | BCP Business Center

    It says "Can"Spam. These are guidelines and if you follow them you can send mail out to market your services.

    If you're doing low volume ... anything under 1000 a day ... you really don't have anything to worry about. Just never send it from your own ISP.

    Use one of the ESP's (email service providers) Plenty out there to choose from.

    Have fun,

    Mark
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    Marketing & Marketing

    VipDiscountLeads.com
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  • Profile picture of the author englandrm
    I think scraping emails is actually illegal. I think there's something about that in the Can-Spam Act.

    I actually started building my client list this way. I would scrape emails from a given keyword search, such as "denver real estate." I'd then send a customized email for that keyword to all of them. I would do about 500 daily. (This is almost a year ago). I got some clients out of it, but truthfully...

    I'd suggest keeping it "kosher".

    At a low volume of emailing, your risk is quite low; but there's still a risk. Getting caught is not worth it; there's fines and possible jail time (yes jail time, for emails).


    >

    As Victoria said above, use the contact forms on their site. Personalize the message, and even mention about their site. I would offer a free SEO analysis or website proposal. This will increase your response rate, and ultimately increase your close rate.

    >

    Then once you get some clients going, ask for referrals. That's where most of my business comes from now, and I'm in the same SEO/Web Design niche (mainly SEO these days). It's a decent amount of work initially, but it pays off in the long run.


    One of my main client generation strategies when I was just starting out was using Craigslist. Just post an ad on there twice a week, and get some traffic to your site. Close those deals, and then go for referrals.
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    I am SEO.

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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      [sigh] Here we go again.

      Federal law in the US does not define "spam," beyond the implications in the title of CAN-SPAM: "Controlling the assault of non-solicited pornography and marketing."

      Scraping can be a problem legally in the US if the sites from which you scrape the addresses have proper notifications posted. Not many do, but it's a risk nonetheless.

      Receiving systems define spam. The generally accepted definition for purposes of the terms of service of most providers is simple: unsolicited bulk messaging. So, based on that, yes. What you are considering is spam, and it will hopefully get you nuked off your provider if you do it.

      A warning to anyone considering commenting: Endorsing or teaching the sending of unsolicited bulk email in any post in this forum is grounds for immediate banning.


      Paul
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      Stop by Paul's Pub - my little hangout on Facebook.

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  • Profile picture of the author RemyMartin
    Well if they did not opt-in then i would consider that spam, yes.
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    The money is the motive.

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