Guerrilla Marketing

by Audri Lanford

Unsolicited commercial email (UCE), more commonly known as bulk email, "spam" or umail, is a growing problem on the Internet. Spamming means sending unsolicited email to a large group of people, either via individual emails or through email discussion lists or newsgroups.

Proponents of bulk email say that there are huge advantages to using bulk email for your marketing. They point out that the costs of bulk email are almost trivial compared to the costs of sending out direct mail. And they say that it is much faster than other forms of marketing and advertising: recipients get your message almost instantly, rather than having to wait days, weeks or months. Some claim that the response rate can be higher than other forms of advertising. They often promise that bulk email "assures a 100% readership." And finally, they point out that it is "environmentally friendly" since no paper is used."

And there are many people who will tell you that sending out bulk email is the road to riches. After all, they claim that since the cost of sending out your email is virtually zero, you can reach hundreds of thousands - or millions - of potential prospects for free. And since some of these prospects will be interested in your offer, you can make millions of dollars by sending out this bulk email.

OK, what's wrong with this picture?
Many things. Spamming is a very bad idea. At best you will alienate the very people you want to reach. And at worst, you can create some very serious problems for yourself and your business.

Spamming is shortsighted as a business tactic. Further, people who spam put themselves in the company of low-budget -- and sometimes sleazy -- net opportunists, which is not the way to position your business.

Let's look at a few of the reasons spamming is such a bad idea:

1) Many people on the Internet hate getting unsolicited email. They feel very strongly about this. They believe that unsolicited email violates "netiquette," the rules for being a good net citizen. Enraging and completely turning off a significant proportion of your prospects is not a good marketing strategy!

2) It just plain doesn't work. There are countless examples of companies who have sent out bulk email, and not only did they not get the results they hoped for, they also ruined their Internet reputations for other Internet promotions, and had numerous other problems as a result (see the examples below).

There is even a Blacklist of Internet Advertisers which is aimed at publicizing offensive behavior with the hope that people who learn about it will punish the offenders.

You don't want to get on this list! (Many product boycotts have started with this list. You can read about companies who have been successfully boycotted, as well as their apologies to the Internet community. You can even learn about how some companies were considered so offensive that they "were forced to make contributions to charities or build large home page data sets for social agencies.")

3) Some of these people who become enraged will do more than simply not buy your products. If they are polite, they may just email your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and ask that your account be closed. (An ISP is a company that rents connections to the Internet so you can access the Internet.) One complaint won't cause an ISP to close your account - several hundred probably will. Or they may request that your Web pages be removed from access to the Internet.

It is very difficult to conduct a successful Internet marketing campaign without email or a Web site!

If they are not polite, they may "flame" you, which means they send nasty or derisive email. Often, flaming involves sending hundreds, or even thousands of these hate messages. (If you're flamed, don't respond negatively. It will only make the situation worse.)

Or the enraged person may send you thousands of "mail bombs," which are very large files which are attached to email. Mail bombs are designed to overwhelm the computer sites where the offenders have their email accounts so that the offenders lose their access to the Internet.

If that's not enough, these people can get seriously nasty. For example, they may find out your social security number and credit card numbers, post them on a bulletin board or somewhere on the Internet, and suggest that people use them to "get even" with you.

In other words, they may do things to make your life quite miserable.

Needless to say: Don't send bulk email!

4) Many users will filter out email from people or companies that offend them with "bozo filters," which are part of most common email programs. Bozo filters allow users to automatically delete email that comes from the email address of someone that the user considers a "bozo" and doesn't want to be bothered with. If you're defined as a "bozo" by the recipients of your email, they won't even see other email you send them - your email immediately will go into the electronic trash. People who send unsolicited email are often automatically considered "bozos." (Below are lots of resources to help you do this.)

5) Spamming is really "postage due marketing." Imagine having to pay for each piece of junk mail you received via direct mail? With bulk email, that's in effect what's happening. Sometimes it's indirect via the monthly fees you pay to your Internet Service Provider. Other times, if you pay by the hour, and then you're directly paying for the "privilege" of receiving spams.

In other words, spammers force the recipients to pay the cost of their advertisements. Further, recipients have to spend time and money dealing with the unwelcome intrusion into their personal email mailbox. This is unethical, unfair, and not right.

6) Spammers know that most recipients don't want to receive their spams, and that many will be angered (or enraged) by them. So, they use all sorts of deceptive devices to hide where (and who) the email is coming from. At a minimum, they use "throw away" accounts to send their bulk email, knowing that they'll close these accounts after the spam is sent out.

Sometimes, they send their messages by using someone else's mail server, which may well overburden the other person's mail server. Then, all of the angry responses come to the innocent party.

Another trick spammers use is to forge the headers of their messages, making it look as though the message originated elsewhere. Again, angry mail is diverted to the innocent party.

A variant of this is that spammers break into private email lists, and send a spam as if they were the author of that list. This happened to the Internet ScamBusters list the night before Thanksgiving. Every subscriber received a message titled "Bargain," supposedly from the Editors of Internet ScamBusters. It was a real headache to deal with this fraud.

7) Many spams are for fraudulent offers. Because of the anonymity, it's easy to use bulk email to sell fraudulent and sleazy products, such as pyramid schemes, chain letters, pornography, pirated software, and products that help spammers forge email addresses and steal mailing services. That's another good reason never to buy products promoted via bulk email.

8) Quite obviously, there are much better ways to achieve the results you are seeking.

How To Dramatically Reduce The Amount Of Spam You're Receiving
We noticed that the amount of spam we were getting at my company (NETrageous) was significantly increasing each month. A couple of months ago, we were each getting about 30 to 50 spams a day! Spams had gone from being a real nuisance to a serious problem.

So, we decided to see if we could systematically reduce the amount of spam we receive. We starting using the tips we present here.

And it worked. We've reduced the amount of spam by about 55%.

We're also adding a "Stop Spam" page to our Web site with all the resources in this article -- plus new ones -- as we find them. If you know of any good anti-spam resources we've missed, please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

So here are some tips -- and lots of resources -- to help you reduce the amount of spam you receive.

*Visit The Scambusters stop spam page

* Register with "exclude" lists.
Exclude lists are lists of email addresses that more experienced spammers use to filter out people who don't want to receive spam. You fill out a simple form and then you are excluded from receiving bulk email from the companies that have their email address lists filtered.

For example, add your email addresses to: No Junk Email , The Jensen House's No Spam list .

* Always follow the instructions *exactly* to remove yourself from each spam you receive which includes "Remove" instructions.
Many spams don't include these instructions -- if so then just delete the spam. We always look at the top and bottom of the spam -- if it's buried, we don't bother. We don't want to waste the time searching for remove instructions.

Check to see exactly who the email is sent to (if you have more than one email address). After all, it's useless to try to remove yourself from a list when you are asking them to remove the wrong email address. So, it's important to send your request from the correct email account (the one which was sent the spam).

How do you know what email address was sent the spam? You won't find it in the "To:" Field. There are lots of resources below to help you do this.

Here's a brief description if you use Eudora: You can click on the Blah Blah Blah button at the top of the email. You'll see your email address buried in the top few lines.)

Note: Your request to get off the list will most likely bounce over half of the time. Nonetheless, it still does seem to help.

* Use a separate email address when you post to newsgroups and mailing lists.
Never use this email address for personal email. Then, you can quickly go through the email in this account to see what's spam and what isn't. And your main personal email address won't be as clogged with spam.

For example, AOL users can set up a special user name for free, and use that for their postings. Then, they can just discontinue that account if they start to get too much spam.

* NEVER buy anything from a company that spams.
Don't visit their sites or ask for more information. (If you respond to their spams, you're encouraging them to continue spamming.) See the Boulder Pledge below.

*Filter your spam.
Visit http://www.mmgco.com/nospam/ for instructions.

Some other good resources to deal with spam:

Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email:
The online anti-spam organization. CAUCE Their list of anti-spam resources is probably the best around.

Fight spam on the Internet.
Includes a good description of how to complain to the spammer's provider .

The Boulder Pledge
A simple part of the solution to the spam problem, devised by Roger Ebert at the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado. (He announced this pledge in his column in Yahoo! Internet Life's December 1996 issue.)

"Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited email message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community."

Yahoo Spam Listings
There is so much discussion on the Web about spam, that Yahoo has two separate categories for it, Junk email and Direct email (a euphemism for spam -- we're not making this up).

SPAM Media Tracker
This Web site has an amazing list of articles on spam .

Netizens Against Gratuitous Spamming
Some excellent resources, including three methods to deal with spams , starting with the "I'm nice" method.

Stop Unsolicited Mass E-Mail Advertisements!
Excellent discussion of the problems with bulk email. Includes special tips for America Online users, things to keep in mind before joining an Internet mailing list or newsgroup, and where and how to complain.

Junkbusters
We've mentioned this site before, but it's worth repeating. Excellent links, resources, and news .

Get that spammer!
Lots of anti-spam resources, including tools and strategies for tracking down individuals, and links to lots of other anti-spam sites. Good tips for what an ISP can (and should) do about spam.

The Netizen's Guide to Spam, Abuse, and Internet Advertising.
Lots of good resources, including recent spam related news, links, and suggestions for dealing with spam.

How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, Spam, and Telemarketers.
Good tips, information and links to help you avoid spams, junk mail and telemarketers.

Mark Neely's Anti-UMail FAQ.
Lots of interesting links, plus a good description of the common pro-spam arguments, with rebuttals.

Blacklist of Internet Advertisers.
We've been writing about these folks since we started Internet ScamBusters. The site includes lots of useful links, as well as information on how to deal with spam.

Direct Electronic Mail Marketing Association.
Includes a complaint form for getting off spammers' lists.

Fairly good description of spam and what to do about it.

Everything E-Mail's
Unsolicited Email (Spam) Issues. Good (short) list of resources.

Existing and Emerging Laws Related to Junk E-mail.
Also, visit their page on places to complain about spams.

Junk Email
Good list of resources, including how to report junk email scams (where you've actually lost money) to the FTC.

The Campaign to Stop Junk Email Web site.
Lots of good resources, plus up-to-date news on the campaign.

How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, Spam, and Telemarketers
Another good page of tips, news and links.

Junk Email Advice for Businesses
Includes a good essay called "Why You Shouldn't Advertise by Bulk Email: Guidance for Internet Marketers," as well as suggestions for what ISPs should do about junk email.

Spam, Scams and Relevant Resources
Good list of resources .

List of domain names that allow spam (great for filtering).

We hope these resources help you succeed in reducing the amount of spam you receive. Let us know your results. Thanks!