What’s All the Fuss About Reverse Marketing

Posted on June 4, 2008
Filed Under Advertising & Marketing, Affiliate Programs, Scams

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What Is Reverse Marketing

You send and someone subscribe to your newsletter to get your email address and then they send you their ads or links to a business opportunity. But do you think this would tarnish your reputation, especially as you have not established a relationship prior to contacting the list owner?

Some people have even gone as far as to make phone call to leave a message like

“Want to earn $10,000 this month then call me on …”

Hmm I would reply with something like $10,000 is not enough. You obviously cannot help me. Ha-ha

But really I cannot be bothered to waste my time to respond to their messages.

I have heard from several of my network marketing friends who are becoming frustrated with these tactics. They have even gone as far as to call them back to give them a verbal showdown. But why waste your phone bill and time.

Scraping Webmaster Emails Into Autoresponders

One thing I have been personally plagued with early this year is people scraping my contact email from my website and adding me to their self hosted autoresponder. Now this gets my attention but not in a positive way. I contact the person, who is stupid enough to not only be representing a home business program [where these kinds of tactics would get them kicked off the program immediately] but they also have their picture on their web page and HTML email messages.

So they have made it very easy for me to report them and display their picture on a wall of shame web page if I desired.

So far a short return email informing them that they subscribed me WITHOUT my express permission and I would be sending copies of all offending email to the program owners has prompted them to CEASE and DESIST!

So much for FTC rules and good email marketing practices.

This only gives me the stark impression that they have no clue how to market to get willing opt-ins and that they are so desperate that they risk losing their PAID business over their stupidity.

Responding To Spam

Now I’ve been told that some sales can be made from responding to spam messages with your own offers and services but do you really want to let people know your email address is LIVE and risk even further bombardment with unsolicited email messages?

Worse still they may turn around and report YOU for spamming them!

Subscribing With Your Autoresponder

Oh boy!

What can I say. In these dark ages we have to tell people not to use an autoresponder when filling out web forms. However some people think this is perfectly acceptable and continues to mess up your newsletter subscriptions.

Conclusion

It seems to me that some people enjoy chasing their tail and going round and round in circles. Just the thought of some of these kind of time wasting tactics makes me dizzy. Don’t spend time responding unless you need to remove your email from their autoresponder, use my tip as above if they are marketing an affiliate program.

Hit the good old “DELETE” button and get on with your daily tasks. If the reverse marketer is on your autoresponder and is persistent simply “UNSUBSCRIBE” their email address manually. Be sure to use software like MailWasher Pro to scan your email messages on your server before downloading to your inbox.

There are some people who truly understand what it means to NETWORK and may contact you to genuinely exchange ideas and network with you. Maybe even form a lasting business relationship and engage in a Joint Venture so don’t be too hasty until you’ve worked out their TRUE intentions.

Do you use these kind of reverse marketing tactics and if so what do you hope to gain from it?

Do you have any other tips to deal with reverse marketing or experiences you would like to share? You are welcome to add your comments.

Related Articles:

Spam, Scams and Autoresponder Nightmares!

FeedBurner Email Problems - Let Me Go

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