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3 Mar 2001, Mexico:

Hi.

We are a 22 year old consulting firm in the quality administration
market, and I get to handle all the Internet affairs.

A campaign to promote our services is about to begin but one of the most important aspects of it is still a question mark for me: how to get the e-mail addresses of the company's that our company wants to contact?

If it is within your hands, I ask of you please give any hints on
this because it is not an easy thing to achieve especially with all the
spamming madness.

If you check our site you would find that we are not in the wrong side of the street, we have a very good name in our country and we wouldn't want to loose that for a mistake.

I thank you in advance any advise at all.

Truly

Humberto Rodriguez A.

Dear Humberto:

Unfortunately, as you note, spam has made it difficult for legitimate, ethical companies like yours to market via e-mail. However, you can still conduct an e-mail marketing campaign if you bear in mind a few rules.

First, personalise each e-mail. Visit company web sites, learn a little about the companies you are targeting and send an e-mail specifically to that company. For example, a translation company might see my web site and send me an e-mail saying:

"Dear Dr. Ecommerce:

I was really impressed with your web site and all the advice you offer. However, I think your site could be even more effective if it was translated into other European languages..."

This tiny bit of personalisation would tell me they had visited the web site and were talking specifically to me. So I would be more likely to read it and think about it. If, on the other hand that same company sent me this...

"Dear Friend:

Ace translations offers low cost, high quality translations in all major European languages..."

it would be clear they had merely spammed me. At best I would delete their e-mail immediately. At worst I would trace it and send a complaint to their Internet service provider (ISP).

I find that Yahoo (you may want to try Yahoo Mexico) is very good for finding companies. Don't use the search facility. Rather click on category links. If you are interested in businesses all around the world, follow the categories for business and then types of business. If you want to focus on particular geographical regions, then follow regional categories first and then business categories. Then check each company's web site to see if they are a potential customer, find the appropriate contact e-mail, personalise your sales message and send it. If you can't find a contact point, try one of the generic e-mails for site (eg. info@, sale@, etc.) and ask who to contact.

I appreciate that this is more work, and thus more expensive, than simply sending the same e-mail to hundreds or thousands of prospects. However, your campaign will be better targeted and e-mail will be significantly more likely to bring results.

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce