If you read the following two bullets and find that one applies to your email marketing efforts, consider yourself lucky to read the thoughts that come after them.
- You are about to mail to a list you have not touched in the past 6 months or longer. (Found that hidden folder, eh?)
- You are considering buying or renting lists from some list vendor. (Seriously, email our guy Josh – josh@sendlabs.com - for advice on email collection. There are better and easier ways, trust us!)
Please understand that we're not against mailing to an older list, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. What you need to be concerned about is a term called SPAMTRAPS (or often referred to as “honey pots”). There is no sweetness in this honey. Rather, think of the email equivalent of being stung by a lot of angry bees.
What is a spamtrap and why should I care as an email marketer?
Remember that old hotmail address you used to have? Or that one from AOL you had 7 years ago? Guess what? ISP's that provide those email accounts to you have taken a new approach on fighting spam. While it can be quite effective, it can also very quickly destroy your company reputation. Here's how it works:
Instead of old or inactive email accounts being deleted by ISP's holding them, those accounts are kept active. As the ISP knows these are not "active" accounts used by real people, there is a good chance that if someone is emailing to those addresses, then most likely, it’s your friendly neighborhood spammer.
But I am not a spammer!
Sorry to burst your email marketing bubble, but if you purchase a list or email to an old list, there is a good chance some of these afore-mentioned email accounts are on that list, even on your house list! Mail to them and you risk getting trapped! You're looking at an instant guilty verdict with most ISPs. They're not going to be interested in your story and will take a very unforgiving approach. Good luck trying to explain to them why you emailed an old, bad email address. Spammers do it all the time and thanks to them, your corporate image is now tainted. If you know a spammer, don’t invite them to your summer BBQs.
What to do
Stay away from buying or renting email lists. Most are shady at best and most likely, you will also risk a large amount of spam complaints. Most people don't really remember "opting-in" to third party info you may be sending them. At the same time, list vendors are notorious for harvesting/collecting names to increase their list size and count. The chance and number of spam traps appearing on your lists go up as a result.
Also, be very careful emailing to an old house list. There are strategies we like to call "handshake emails" where you can re-introduce yourself to an older list in a simple way to both clean up your list and remove older addresses, but also gain verified opt-in, thus knowing your list is current and active with live recipients who want to hear from you.
Need some help? Email Josh at josh@sendlabs.com or myself at brett@sendlabs.com. We can help you avoid getting stung in your attempt to achieve email sweetness.
For a current definition visit:
http://www.spamhaus.org/faq/answers.lasso?section=Glossary#169