Email business listings

[sundaymorningstaple]

You two ought to either get married or get divorced! Not sure which!

[banana]

Plavt might be from the UK but I'm pretty sure he doesn't wear a skirt so that's outta the question! High heels maybe but still...

[Strong Eagle]

One thing that is overlooked here is that if I sign up for an email then I have freely given permission to have material sent to me.

However, under any other circumstance, my email address has had to be harvested and sold to UK Designer... and perhaps they have asked for a premium because I am somehow 'qualified' on the mailing list.

Since my email address has been harvested, and if you use it, the email I receive is unsolicited commercial spam.

FWIW, I know very few people (none, actually) who would use the services of someone who has spammed them, even a legitimate business.

[Plavt]

You two ought to either get married or get divorced! Not sure which!

[banana]

One thing that is overlooked here is that if I sign up for an email then I have freely given permission to have material sent to me.

However, under any other circumstance, my email address has had to be harvested and sold to UK Designer... and perhaps they have asked for a premium because I am somehow 'qualified' on the mailing list.

Since my email address has been harvested, and if you use it, the email I receive is unsolicited commercial spam.

FWIW, I know very few people (none, actually) who would use the services of someone who has spammed them, even a legitimate business.

Exactly. The real problem lies with unethical service providers, not the advertisers.

In the course of your internet usage, it is almost certain at some point you would have signed up for some kind of service or subscription. And it is not inconceivable for even the most meticulous (or anal) power user to have neglected to read terms and conditions thoroughly. Very often, these terms and conditions, if you're lucky, will state that the service provider has a right to use your email address for correspondence not directly related to the service per se. They may even reserve the right to share your contact details with "associated services" that they "feel will be of interest to you".

Through this very website, I've received e-mails promoting vineyards. Not real estate. Wines. Is that spamming? I leave that to you.

E-mail technology is not rocket science. Learn to use it wisely, either as an end-user or otherwise.

[Strong Eagle]

Through this very website, I've received e-mails promoting vineyards. Not real estate. Wines. Is that spamming? I leave that to you.

No, this is not spamming. You signed up and accepted the terms and conditions.

It is stuff like when I get bombarded for inkjet printer refills... obviously spam because I have never signed up with anyone remotely related to injet refills.

[ukdesigner]

How all this started was just a simple question.

Obviously nobody here knows the answer. Instead you all had to jump down my throat. A simple "no you can't buy data here" would've sufficed. For the record I AM NOT A SPAMMER. I have no intention of spamming people but advertising my service. I guess strong eagle has never touted for business, sent a letter on spec to people, sent a mailshot out!, rung someone up on the off chance of generating business!! If you haven't and let's say for arguments sake that your not a Warren Buffet then you are a genuine business marvel. It all just fell in your lap. Networking alone can't generate all of your business. I personally, have plenty of work from the UK but am looking to expand my base here. I have never advertised in the UK but have found that my clients recommend me. Here it is slightly different and for that reason I wish to promote my service. An e-shot is the perfect way to show off my product/service and to that end it comes back to my question. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE YOU CAN LEGITIMATELY PURCHASE BUSINESS EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR LEGITIMATE PURPOSES?

This type of "legitimate" marketing is well practised by genuine companies. If you don't like what you receive unsubscribe or if that isn't possible because they aren't a legitimate company then either mark them as spam or inform the authorities. Very simple really. Maybe your spam filters aren't good enough!

If you didn't know this already but in the UK and US you can buy this data quite legitimately, subject to guidelines of course. I have done so many times for clients. Personalised marketing has a higher hit rate than generic marketing as you can target market your product/service. It is not illegal there and it is not illegal here. As long as you follow the guidelines, which I intend to do, then there is nothing wrong.

[garyong]

you can try buying from dp information, but if i cant really remember the price. if you know the demographics of people you want to reach out to, you can try buying from Marketing magazine, they have a list of people from various positions like CEOs, CFOs, marketing managers etc.

But honestly, I am from the media line too and know the stats of email blast. the return rate is very low, thus you have to buy a lot of address. As Strong Eagle mentioned, a lot of people considers it as spam and might just delete it or block your address, without a proper third party platform, you are not able to track the return and the bounce rate, so try a service like www.emailbrain.com

perhaps you might want to ride on another platform to get your message out like an advertorial on a trusted platform eg magazines, channel news asia, newsletter etc, the return is better as people actually opt to receive them.

[ksl]

Malaysia is selling millions of Singapore email addresses for a couple of hundred $, just search them out on the net, I couldn't find them selling in Singapore! You can also purchase targeted emails, which are much more expensive, I never purchased in the end, because there are better ways to bring in business, i believe people don't open half the junk emails anymore, like myself, i never open them if i don't recognise the sender, and I use several email addresses to help cut down spam, to my main address, which i keep for people i know personally and I never sign up to anything using my primary email.

I think also many will recall the spamming incident on this forum several years ago, I traced the spammer to Paya Leba Road and paid them a visit, asking them if I could purchase emails from them, it all ended in a heated argument, they denied spamming, I actually showed him how i had traced it all back to his office, and threatened him with legal action if another email arrived.

Emails are not difficult to get hold of at all, and most of us never read the small print when registering for services. But anyone with ethics would use common sense and inform targeted audience to opt in or out, and not to send emails too frequently.

I can understand the annoyance of advertisements, so i now use several email addresses and think of the consequences of what i am doing, before registering on a website.

Although i do not receive much spam at all from what i would call useful businesses. Normally it is just cheap crap, drugs, or penis enlargement and one doesn't even need to open them, to spot them.

I think a better way is using your close friends, to ask them to forward and advertisement on through their address book, if they think it is of value, to their connection.

I have found that it does work, kind of like a spiders web or networking, maybe there is only a 1 in 20 chance, of interest, but friends normally know if another would be interested. The incentive must also be there too, to encourage the effort.

[smithsan1]

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[David-asia]

I think you should be looking for ezines and other similar sites that send emails to your prospective customers already. Then you can either make a deal to do a one off email to their list, or pay for an advertisement etc. in their ezine.

Whats important is, are the people on the list buyers, and how recent are they to the list. If its an old list, the emails have very little value.

You should also be building your own list by giving away something in exchange for an visitors email- for example an ebook on how to choose the right design company. You then use an autoresponder to send out emails to them on a set schedule.

David

[luxiana]

Apart from the fact it is questionable to pay for such a service, I believe this intent is a waste of money for a least 4 reasons.

First, the quality of the database:
a lot of people now have a spare email address that they use when they register to websites that are likely to "recycle" the data and sell/rent the info to 3rd parties. most "email" suppliers dont give any info on how recent the database is or on the bounce ratio of the mailing.

Second, the method:
the sending of commercial emails has to be done a certain way. from a technical angle: the server from which you are going to send the email from has to be correctly set up, along with the domain name and the email address you re going to use. The number of emails sent at once plays also a part in the success of a mailing campaign. (send 1000 emails with each address in Bcc and your bounce rate will go to the roof. send 1000 individual emails from your server and the ratio will decrease). The content of the email also has to be "spam killer" proof (Yahoo and Gmail have been doing a good job improving their spam killers recently!)

Third, at reception:
spam killers at yahoo/gmail adapt to the situation: if you send an unwelcomed email to a list, quite a decent amount of people will click on "this is a spam". the software will understand your email is a spam and will not deliver it to subsequent addressees.

Fourth, consequences:
your ISP could suspend your service if you are reported sending spams.
unlikely to happen, but still, the threat exists.

To conclude: not respecting these rules will bring a 99.9% probability of your email being redirected into the spam box of the receiver, not mentionning the fact that you might be paying $2.5 for something that is worth nothing

[ukdesigner]

Thanks for the reply Luxiana.

I find it strange that e-shots would get such a poor response level here. Back in the UK it's quite common practice and yields a good response. It's not considered so much spam if you keep to a reasonable level of emails.

I wouldn't use my own server but a dedicated server that is geared up for this kind of service. There are many out there that can be used. And yes at $2.5 or so a name it's very expensive. I always thought SG was a progressive and forward thinking country but some practices just frowned upon, especially going by some of the replies on here.

[Strong Eagle]

Thanks for the reply Luxiana.

I find it strange that e-shots would get such a poor response level here. Back in the UK it's quite common practice and yields a good response. It's not considered so much spam if you keep to a reasonable level of emails.

I wouldn't use my own server but a dedicated server that is geared up for this kind of service. There are many out there that can be used. And yes at $2.5 or so a name it's very expensive. I always thought SG was a progressive and forward thinking country but some practices just frowned upon, especially going by some of the replies on here.

UK, it's not Singapore, it's universal. I think some of the ideas presented here as alternatives to spamming are good... I do subscribe to a number of websites that have newsletters and emails of interest.

But, without question, I would mark you as spam to my spam blocker as I would the people today who sent me emails for corporate gifts and another for seminars. See, you may think you are different but in the larger flow, you're just one more guy filling my inbox with something not relevant to me.

Cheers.

[-jt-]

am i weird but when i was a kid i got a kick out of receiving those publishers clearing house emails the one with ed mcmann i lke opening it up and getting the feeling that ive won 1 million dollars

funny thing now is i still like receiving junk email. although i filter by subjects and if i get any lewd or not really needed spam i report it. but the ones with the genuine offers that make you all feel warm inside? yeah i keep those.