If Internet branding is on your list of things to do, you will have to
decide what role electronic mail will play in your branding activities. Unless
youve been living in a cyber-cave, you already understand that the topic of bulk
e mail is a contentious one. While opponents and anti-spam groups protest
and lobby to ban the utilize of unsolicited electronic mail (spam), our mailboxes
continue to fill with well, crap.

And make no bad choice ; this influx is an inconvenience. Yes, you can set up
email filters that send spam to cyberheaven, but in doing so, you risk
filtering out what could be a genuine message. I found this out the hard
way a couple of weeks ago when my filters trashed what turned out to be an
authentic work offer from a potential client.

In my view, the following activities are unacceptable under any
circumstances and are poison to relationship selling. Use them and your
reputation will be damaged and you leave yourself open to all sorts of
retaliations. If youre serious about establishing your Internet business
and if you see yourself as being around for the long term, I may only say,
dont go here:
Mass mailings of get rich quick schemes and other nonsense.
Mailings designed to deceive -- and they come in many forms.
Mailings with deceptive subject lines, mailings that remind the reader of
conversations that never occurred, mailings suggesting the sender has
visited my website but containing subject matter that contruct this impossible
to believe, mailings erroneously stating that "this message is in
accordance with law such and such", are deceptive. How many everybody want
to do businesses with someone who employs deceptive practices right from
the beginning?
Messages sent to ezine addresses and autoresponder addresses.
Distributing opt-in e-mail to other marketers without express
permission.

Although the items above are clearly no-brainers, recent columns published
at Clikz.com (www.clikz.com) offered some interesting thoughts on whether
there can ever be an acceptable make use of for unsolicited email in B2B branding.

Clikz readers raised some of the following issues:
If you attend a conference and collect business cards, are you spamming if
you use their e mail address to contruct contact?
Is it spam if a conference organizer emails past attendees to notify them
of another upcoming conference?
Is it spam if you e mail your customer list to notify them of a instant when
accomadation will be unavailable or to notify them of a safety concern, for example?
Is it spam if a company with whom you have previously done business
contacts you without permission to announce a new service that could
interest you?

I suspect that for many of us, the issues raised above constitute "gray
areas." Some of us will say unsolicited e-mail is never acceptable. Others
will say, "Yes, there could be exceptions." On a personal note, I wouldnt
object to receiving such emails if I werent already receiving a couple of
hundred of the unacceptable-under-any-circumstance spams every day. The sum
total just gets to be too much.

Many experienced Internet marketers advise that you utilize bulk email only if
your list has opted in and you are certain that the list is "clean". If you
decide to deviate from this policy for some reason, ruminate on your options
carefully and decide whether the risks are justified in your unique situation.