If you smile when your mailbox spills out piles of coupon packs, sale fliers and discount offers, then there’s lots more fun in store for you when you turn on your computer and retrieve your e-mail.
Marketers are increasingly embracing e-mail to send special offers and related messages to consumers. If you’ve ever shopped on-line, you’ve probably already submitted your e-mail address to the on-line merchant. And even if you don’t own a computer, you may have been asked for an e-mail address by a clerk at the retail counter or by the person taking your catalog order.
Strolling the Internet, you’re also bound to encounter requests for your e-mail address in return for freebies or discounts. For instance, a parenting Web site might e-mail you coupons for baby products.
Electronic direct mail is “growing exponentially,” says John Lawlor, president of EmailChannel, a mail service provider in Boca Raton, Fla. While physical mailboxes will still be stuffed with paper for years to come, e-mail is emerging as an important marketing tool, confirms Stephen Altobelli, spokesman for the Direct Marketing Association, a New York-based trade group.
Consumers are now in the unique position of having some control over what arrives in their electronic mailbox. Those who consider direct mail to be mostly “junk” mail should be especially careful about when they provide their e-mail address. And for those who delight in the words “cents off” or “free,” then dropping your e-mail address in some locations can prove rewarding.
“Opt-in” is the only respected type of e-mail address-gathering practice.
For years, marketers have been able to collect your name, address and other kinds of identifying information about you, as well as other data, such as which magazines you subscribe to. But in the new world of cyberspace, your e-mail address is largely unknown, especially if you haven’t had e-mail for long and haven’t yet done much Web surfing.
Responsible companies will inform you that they are collecting your e-mail address when you are on-line, as well as tell you for what marketing purpose your address will be used, say guidelines on e-mail marketing developed by the Association for Interactive Media.
If you are interested in solicitations from a particular source, you “opt-in” or give your address and implicit permission. Simply, “if you don’t want to receive e-mail, then don’t give them your e-mail address,” says Altobelli. He also stresses that if you do opt-in, make certain you know if your e-mail address will later be shared with other companies.
If a firm doesn’t keep your e-mail to itself, warns Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp., a New Jersey-based privacy advocacy organization, you are vulnerable to “spam.” Getting “spammed” is the term used to describe getting loads of unsolicited and unwanted e-mail, the cyberspace equivalent of junk mail.
Privacy concerns can arise if your e-mail address gets tied to your real name or home address.
Getting spammed is annoying, but some feel a much more insidious threat to privacy could occur if their e-mail address is linked to their real identity. Especially if you submit your e-mail address to a Web site on which you’ve also provided your real name and/or address, the site could tap that data and link the two together, notes Catlett.
The privacy threat involved with linking your e-mail to your identity comes into play if marketers “synchronize the cookie they set with your e-mail address, and possibly with cookies from other companies, so you may be identified as you move around the Web,” says Catlett. A “cookie” is a popular term for a technique under which Web sites can track your activity on their site. Sometimes networks that place advertising on the Internet also use cookies to track your visits around cyberspace. For more information on this subject, including advice on how to disable cookies on your computer, visit www.junkbusters.com.
E-mail messages can be tailored to your specific wants and needs.
Direct mail has earned the moniker “junk” mail because much of what arrives each day is of little interest to recipients.
Now, more sophisticated data-gathering software, combined with buying data from on-line shoppers, allows marketers to target offers more neatly tied to consumers’ interests and purchasing patterns.
Currently, for instance, Walgreen Co. sells only prescription pharmaceuticals at its Web site, www.walgreens.com. Customers can elect to have e-mail messages sent alerting them when it’s time to refill prescriptions, notes spokesman Michael Polzin. When Walgreens augments it Web site later this year to include other store items, similar targeted messages are possible, Polzin says.
Customers of Dominick’s Finer Foods who have a “Fresh Values” card, which enables them to obtain instant discounts at the checkout, can also input their card number at Dominick’s web site, www.dominicks.com, to receive coupons and special discounts or items they often purchase. The Fresh Values card captures data on customer purchases, explains Andrea Brands, Dominick’s spokeswoman, and if a customer elects to enter his card number on the Web site, discount offers are matched to items he’s likely to want. “It’s entirely voluntary,” stresses Brand. “We’re sensitive to privacy issues and we don’t sell or share Fresh Values data.”
At the Jewel-Osco Web site, www.jewelosco.com, customers can order party items such as bakery goods and flowers and receive confirmations by e-mail along with information about when and where to pick up orders, says spokeswoman Karen Ramos.
The Internet is littered with sites asking consumers to “opt-in” to e-mail solicitations. For instance, Gary Brooks, president of emaildirect Inc. in Aliso Viejo, Calif., says about 3,000 people a day respond to ads placed by his firm on popular sites, such as employment Web sites, and opt to receive “Val-Pak” coupons via e-mail. Many consumers are already familiar with these coupons, which arrive 10 times a year in a blue envelope, in their physical mailbox, says Brooks.
Naturally, computer users are the only people who can receive e-mail , and marketers tend to pitch potential e-mail recipients on the Web. But you may have been asked if you’d like to give your e-mail address when you’re making an in-store or catalog purchase. Most of the e-mail messages will probably steer you to the company’s on-line site, where they hope to entice more customers, says Altobelli.
E-mail marketing is especially suited for items that are perishable or have a short shelf life, explains Lawlor. “If you have inventory that needs to be moved like airline seats or bathing suits at the end of the season, you can send out e-mails offering a great rate.”
Proper “etiquette” holds that messages should be clearly labeled and consumers should have an opportunity to “opt-out.”
