2008-05-14T00:30:35-07:00 Practical Ecommerce info@practicalecommerce.com http://www.practicalecommerce.com/ Copyright 2007 Confluence Publishing DBA Practical Ecommerce http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/713/Email-Marketing-Avoid-This-Deadly-Mistake/#comment10505 2008-05-14T00:30:35-07:00

I could not agree with Ben and J.D. more... As I mentioned last week - "If you continue to send email to customers that is random and unexpected, there will be consequences." http://blog.bronto.com/2008/04/29/email-address-shelf-life/ http://blog.bronto.com/2008/05/08/the-secret-to-successfully-emailing-to-old-addresses/ dj at bronto

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/713/Email-Marketing-Avoid-This-Deadly-Mistake/#comment10476 2008-05-13T10:35:33-07:00

As you know, ISPs are trying to stop spam -- they don't care about you, unless you're doing things the spammers do. Pete, what you've suggested -- sending "a test run through one of the free email accounts companies" -- is something the spammers do. And ISPs try very, very hard to stop it. I suspect that any legitimate marketer won't want to get dumped into that same bucket.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/713/Email-Marketing-Avoid-This-Deadly-Mistake/#comment8986 2008-04-15T12:57:50-07:00

Sorry, my comments were directed to Doug

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/713/Email-Marketing-Avoid-This-Deadly-Mistake/#comment8984 2008-04-15T12:57:42-07:00

I disagree, Cricket. The problem is the instant Blacklist issue in the "Spam Traps". I fell into one of these myself, just by sending a message through my guest book program to one user. My host demanded I remove said program so that it didn't happen again. So just sending that first email can get you blacklisted and cause issue...unwanted ones. I recommend a test run through one of the free email accounts companies, such as yahoo or hotmail before sending directly from your own domain name if you want to clean up your list.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/713/Email-Marketing-Avoid-This-Deadly-Mistake/#comment8976 2008-04-15T08:59:16-07:00

Not sure if I'd recommend deleting email addresses simply because they are over 12 months old, these are most likely still very good prospects. I have faced this exact situation before, and needed to move ISPs largely because of it. What you need to make sure you have in place is automated bounce management. Look at the return codes 5XX for hard bounce backs and mark these users as having bounced. Next time around you do not mail to them. Not only is this a generally good practice going forward, it will help you immediately clean your list after the first few sends. ISPs tend to give you some time to get your bounce rate under control so you should not face immediate blacklisting.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/713/Email-Marketing-Avoid-This-Deadly-Mistake/#comment8977 2008-04-15T08:59:08-07:00

Isn't it better to unsubscribe them?