How do i do an email blast to welcome new users?

[schenker76]

Hello, I would like to blast out my online services to other businesses. (i'm a new start-up and no one knows me yet). I'm wondering what is the cost effective way or if possible free solution to blast out between 300-500 emails at a time to potential customers. I will be blasting emails on a weekly basis. Any solution, pls?
Thank You.

[Harold Mansfield]

Hello, I would like to blast out my online services to other businesses. (i'm a new start-up and no one knows me yet). I'm wondering what is the cost effective way or if possible free solution to blast out between 300-500 emails at a time to potential customers. I will be blasting emails on a weekly basis. Any solution, pls?
Thank You.

Unless they've signed up to be on your mailing list, it's technically and legally spamming. I don't know of any newsletter service that will let you do that. Even if you import a list it's going to be short lived as soon as half your recipients opt out and they shut down your account. And you can't send 300+ emails through your regular hosting account.

[vangogh]

Even if it wasn't spam, it wouldn't be effective. You'll just annoy people. You have to find other ways to get known when you're starting. One reason people have blogs on their sites is because if you can regularly produce content that people find useful, informative, or entertaining it will attract people to your site. It's not easy to do though. You also need content on your site to attract traffic from social sites. Similar with search engine traffic.

Another approach is to buy advertising. AdWords or FaceBook ads will probably be the most effective, but both will require you to learn their systems and spend money on the ads. You don't have to spend a lot and both provide good data to help you reach the right people and spend less overall per lead.

I think the content approach is the better option long term. You build an asset with it that allows you to do more and be less dependent on other companies. Content can be anything. It can be written, audio, video, images, presentations, applications. It has to be something people are interested in. It helps you build a relationship with people and people prefer to do business with people they know, because they trust people more when they know them.

It seems impossible when you're first getting started, but it isn't. It'll probably take a little time to gain traction. Once it does, it starts building itself. Once you've built out your site so there is good content there, you can contribute to other sites to reach people who are likely to be interested in your site as well.

[schenker76]

My business is bridging 'service providers' to users who require them. Service providers are business owners who have publicly listed their emails. I'm sending them an invitation email to try my service to get more business opportunities. There will be an unsubscribe link in the emails if they are not keen. Is business-to-business marketing email considered spam?

[Brian Altenhofel]

B2B unsolicited (cold) email is legal (at least in the US) provided that it is conspicuously labeled as a commercial advertisement (and follows all of the other regulatory requirements regarding contact information, opt-out information, etc.).

Now, you're not going to be able to send any reasonable amount of emails off of a normal email account. Email marketing services like Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor are geared towards B2C and have a general policy against unsolicited email campaigns. In fact, I can't think of any services that will allow campaigns that aren't permission- or transaction-based.

[Harold Mansfield]

My business is bridging 'service providers' to users who require them. Service providers are business owners who have publicly listed their emails. I'm sending them an invitation email to try my service to get more business opportunities. There will be an unsubscribe link in the emails if they are not keen. Is business-to-business marketing email considered spam?

Yeah, it's spam. Doesn't matter what your business is. No matter how you try to explain it or justify it, if they haven't asked to be contacted or joined your list and you send them an unsolicited email it's spam. Trust us, it won't work out the way you're envisioning it in your head. All you're going to do is have your emails go in their spam or junk folder ( blocked forever) and your company name associated with spam. It would be quicker to just smash your computers with a baseball bat, douse them with kerosine and drop a match.

When marketers use the term "email blast" they are talking about to their people who are subscribers on their list. Not random people.

Companies don't "publicly list" their emails for sales people. They provide contact information for clients and potential clients. Actually a lot of companies hide their emails now because of the obscene amount of email solicitations, i.e. spam.

You need to come up with an actual sales and marketing plan.

[vangogh]

Is business-to-business marketing email considered spam?

If you send unsolicited email in bulk, it's spam. That's the definition. Is it possible what you want to do clears some technical hurdle making it not spam? Sure. Maybe. I'm not a lawyer. I don't really care whether it is or isn't. I'm saying it won't be effective.

When was the last time someone you didn't know sent you an email you didn't want that was trying to sell you something or offering some kind of business proposal and the result was you bought from them or decided to work with them? Why do you think other people will respond differently?

I understand it's difficult to find customers. Sending unsolicited emails to people is not the way to get them. It is a good way to ruin your reputation, though.


My business is bridging 'service providers' to users who require them

Are you clairvoyant? Omniscient? How exactly do you know what people require?

[billbenson]

Just something to note as well. An unsubscribe link is frequently a way for spammers to verify that they have a good email. For that reason, I would never click on an unsubscribe link.

[KristineS]

There are services like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact but they won't allow any lists unless the people on the list opted to be on it.

Yes, e-mail address are readily available from businesses, but that doesn't mean they're looking to be added to a list for a random e-mail blast. As a general rule, if they didn't ask for it, don't send it to them.

[SellingZeroesAndOnes]

@schenker76

As many have already said, your initial idea is technically considered spam. I can relate to being a company just starting up and not being known to anyone as yet. Here are a few suggestions which might help in your case:

-Since you are focusing on B2B, try finding the relevant people within the company on LinkedIn and try to connect there.
-You can also join related groups on LinkedIn and make your services known that way.
-Categorize your target companies into sections and find out if there are any trade associations or similar organization. They may be willing to send an email to their members advertising your service (although this will probably cost you)
-This may not be as applicable, but you can check for company blogs, Facebook pages etc and try to connect that way

The process isn't as simple as it seems and it does require time and effort, but if it is any comfort, your competitors are probably struggling even more.