Mailing Lists - effective?

[Bill]

Wanted to ask the audience if anyone out there is using Mailing Lists,
such as those offered by MSN BCentral, in order to carry out your
marketing. BCentral claims that for $299 annually, they will mail
your e-mail marketing to a targeted list of 10,000 people a month. On
the face, this appears to be a very cost effective method of
advertising.

The website my partners and I are working on is currently under
development and will offer stock market information, with an option to
subscribe for more "advanced" content. This site will likely be
operational in about 6 months. Another website, more "home grown", is
underdevelopment by my wife, which will offer recipes and cooking
ideas.

My QUESTIONS:

1) Is such "targeted" marketing really effective? I am curious what
the real world feels about this, versus MSN advertising department.

2) Are there more attractive packages offered by other people besides
MSN? Who?

3) What other marketing is recommended, besides outright buying
ad-space on Yahoo?

4) Any tips on getting the message out WORLD-WIDE? My site will offer
a $9.95 a month subsription (similar sites offer pricing ranging from
$19.95 to 29.95 a month). According to various online stats, the
current number of English speaking internet users is 230 million. If
I can obtain 10,000 subscribers, from SOMEWHERE on the planet, that
will produce just under $1.2 million in revenue annually based on my
subscription pricing. Another way to put it, if 99.995% (!!!---->
meaning 10,000 people did subscribe) either dont get my message, get
it but say no, etc, then I can still achieve quite a success rate,
even tho it initially looks like a failure.

if anyone can answer these questions and more, it would be appreciated

thanks

BILL

 

[Tom Pepper Willett]

On the face, it appears to be spamming, which is not very popular.

Tom

| Wanted to ask the audience if anyone out there is using Mailing Lists,
| such as those offered by MSN BCentral, in order to carry out your
| marketing. BCentral claims that for $299 annually, they will mail
| your e-mail marketing to a targeted list of 10,000 people a month. On
| the face, this appears to be a very cost effective method of
| advertising.
|
| The website my partners and I are working on is currently under
| development and will offer stock market information, with an option to
| subscribe for more "advanced" content. This site will likely be
| operational in about 6 months. Another website, more "home grown", is
| underdevelopment by my wife, which will offer recipes and cooking
| ideas.
|
| My QUESTIONS:
|
| 1) Is such "targeted" marketing really effective? I am curious what
| the real world feels about this, versus MSN advertising department.
|
| 2) Are there more attractive packages offered by other people besides
| MSN? Who?
|
| 3) What other marketing is recommended, besides outright buying
| ad-space on Yahoo?
|
| 4) Any tips on getting the message out WORLD-WIDE? My site will offer
| a $9.95 a month subsription (similar sites offer pricing ranging from
| $19.95 to 29.95 a month). According to various online stats, the
| current number of English speaking internet users is 230 million. If
| I can obtain 10,000 subscribers, from SOMEWHERE on the planet, that
| will produce just under $1.2 million in revenue annually based on my
| subscription pricing. Another way to put it, if 99.995% (!!!---->
| meaning 10,000 people did subscribe) either dont get my message, get
| it but say no, etc, then I can still achieve quite a success rate,
| even tho it initially looks like a failure.
|
| if anyone can answer these questions and more, it would be appreciated
|
| thanks
|
| BILL

 

[Brian Mailman]

Wanted to ask the audience if anyone out there is using Mailing Lists,
such as those offered by MSN BCentral,....

<cough> Put on your asbestos undies and ask this in
news.admin.net-abuse.email and see what happens. The short version is
"use BCentral and you'll find that in many cases, you mail isn't going
to be delivered."

B/

 

[Bill]

Not very encouraging! I understand the "spam" appearance, but it was
my understanding that these lists were opted-in people.

Anyone else?

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

The problem is that spammers have abuse the "opt-in" function, by adding
people directly to a opt-in list without the people actually opting in.

You should be ok, as long as you only send to people that have signed up for
your list, and you only send information that you have indicated that you
will be sending, that you do not give their name/email address to others,
and you have a good privacy policy statement, that state how their info will
be used, and are prepared to stick to policies stated in it, you should be
ok.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Brian Mailman]

Not very encouraging! I understand the "spam" appearance, but it was
my understanding that these lists were opted-in people.

Anyone else?

"Opt-in" should mean "the receiver has affirmatively or proactively
agreed to receive the mail."

Too many marketers seem to think it means "I've decided you want what
I'm sending." Just going to a web site and getting your address
captured isn't "opt-in." Neither is Widget Co. selling your address
(even though you want info about widgets) to Wadget Co.

A further step is called "confirmed" or "verified" or "closed-loop"
opt-in. That is when you say to a company "I want info about your
product, please put me on your newsletter," and the company sends back a
letter saying something like "this address requested a subscription to a
newsletter. If this is true, please return this to confirm your
opting-in, if not, please ignore and we won't send you anything more."

Sounds like a hassle, but it's handy. On the mailing list I own, I can
point to the logs and say to someone, "On July 31 at 7:20am this address
requested a subscription to the mailing list via the web site (or by
email). On July 31 at 7:37am, someone from this address confirmed the
subscription." And I attach a screen shot of the log entries.
Confirmed opt-in will increase your response rate in the long run, and
cause you less hassle with the blocklists. You may wish to ask in
news.admin.net-abuse.blocklists about Best Practices for mailing lists
(it's moderated and much less ... noisy ... than nanae).

This is off-topic, but if you're considering doing a mailing list via FP
these are things to consider.

Friends don't let friends use BCentral.

B/

 

[Steve Easton]

Thanks,
Had to play a little "devils advocate there"

You probably already know this, but make sure
the professionals you're working with have their
Compliance Department involved from the start,
as they are a fussy bunch and a pain.
As an example, our business cards even had to
be approved by them, even down to the color of
the ink and the font.


--
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer

Steve-

Thanks for the reply and the points you brought up. While not
inclined to outright gave away my website at this point, we are
working with professionals involved in the securities industry in the
development of this site. Also, "educational" based versus "stock
recommendations." Liability issues are being evaluated also.

I appreciate your post

Take care