Bulk mail and email marketing can be an effective way to communicate with your customers, increase sales and improve customer service. However, you must be aware there is a great difference between a bulk mail campaign to your customers, or people that have requested information from you, and Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE). UBE is email sent to a group of recipients who have not requested it. A mail recipient may have at one time asked a sender for bulk email, but later asked that sender not to send any more email, or otherwise may not have indicated a desire for such additional mail. Hence any bulk email sent after the original request was received is also UBE.

A common term for UBE is "spam."

How many messages are considered bulk?

As a rough rule of thumb, if a person makes a conscious and informed decision (on a message by message and recipient by recipient basis) that the individual message should be sent to that individual recipient, it is probably not bulk and you can send to as many recipients as necessary. These recipients have asked to receive your message. If you sourced email addresses that have not asked to receive your messages, and send to these recipients, any amount is considered spam.

How do I responsibly gather email addresses?

Purchasing a large list of emails from an unknown source and sending to these recipients is spam. If you do purchase email lists, make sure these lists come from reputable companies that have asked customers to opt-in (or better yet double opt-in to receiving information on a particular topic). The best method to gathering email addresses is to ask for them from your customers, your website visitors, ezine readers, print ads, etc.

Common ways that email addresses are gathered:

Ask visitors to sign a guest book on your website

Ask your customers whether they want to receive periodic updates on products

Start a newsletter – ask your website visitors to sign up

Host a contest asking for email addresses. Clearly state you will be sending periodic updates and promotions on products

If you have a brick-and-mortar store or business, ask your customers for their emails to keep them informed

Telemarket – contact prospective customers and ask whether they would be interested in receiving additional information

One important factor of gathering email addresses and communicating with this list is always allowing your customers to unsubscribe or opt-out.

What is opt-in and double opt-in?

By definition, an opt-in implies a user must specifically ask to join a mailing list or a newsletter before they are added. Users are not subscribed to these listings by default. Users that specifically request a subscription may remove themselves at a later date. Double opt-in requires a user to join a mailing list. An email is generated to the user and they must then confirm this email to be added to the mailing list.

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