DietsInReview.com Reviewed (or, Why Email Spam Whois Data of Bloggers With High Touch Marketing Ideas?)
Some marketers aggressively email spam people to promote their best ideas, thinking no harm could come from it. If you do not take the time to personalize emails and actually visit the sites you are emailing then you probably going to send someone like me an email, and there is a 5% chance I will blog about it. If I blog about it, I am probably not going to be talking up the product. ;)
DietsInReview.com recently launched their celebrity weight loss calculator. I was sent a bulk unpersonalized email containing the following tip
The tool is specifically un-branded so it can blend with your experience. All we ask is that you post the entire code which contains a link back to our site.
Their site has a great growth chart. They come up with great marketing ideas. They are clever with SEO. And they are too lazy to connect the pieces without untargeted email spamming. Silly. Spend $10 an hour hiring someone to send out the emails if you are too lazy to do it yourself.
If you are reactive to blog feedback (like they were here kimkinscontroversy.com/2007/09/25/kimkins-affiliate-spotlight-dietsinreviewcom/) then why not be proactive in creating meaningful relationships in the community? No point putting great ideas on churn and burn sites, and no point burning relationships with leading editorial voices in your market if you are creating a longterm site.
Comments
This is very true. If you just spend just a few extra seconds to get the right name and say something about their site your success rate will go up higher.
When it comes down to it, if you think of it not as spam and think of it as building a relationship you will always come out ahead.
All we need now is voice overs, and then someone can create a site with all the presentations and then those of us that are limited in travel can watch them online (maybe for a fee if that is important to presenters).
I think people pay for conferences not so much for the materials but more for the experience and meeting people.
The guy from SeatGuru absolutely rocked. I might have paid for a consult with him for an off the record chat if he was up for it after watching his presentation. I felt embarrassed with my presentation compared to how good his was.
Many conference speakers are selling product more than teaching and informing though, so I am not sure if there would be much aggregate value in bundling 15 minute speeches. I think it would be better to have longer talk sessions at a higher pricepoint with paid speakers such that conference speakers do not sell as aggressively as some do.
And more recently another thing being sold is misinformation spread by fear of search engines. Its a product many people do not even realize they are buying into when they listen.
Hi Dave
Yup. The key is to get the person receiving the message to think of it as relationship building and not spam. Am hoping the people at diets in review figured it out now.
I got to see the SeatGuru guy too and I thought he did a great job, and it was cool that he was not selling anything - only sharing.
Perhaps if I make it big someday I will share like he did.
This is totally off topic, but I just zoomed in on Google's 2008 New Year's logo and SYN SYN/ACK ACK is written in the graffiti at the bottom! Nice!
Hello Aaron –
My name is Robert and I am one of the founders of DietsInReview.com and wanted to address your blog post in respect to email spamming. I personally sent every single email reaching out to blogs and sites that were a perfect fit for the Celebrity BMI (all diet or celebrity related). We actually received very positive feedback and made some great partnerships for such a small number of sites mailed (about 50).
I would like to apologize to anyone who took offense in receiving an email that did not address them personally or include something specific about their site. As I am sure you know that many blogs and sites just have a generic email addresses or a field to submit an inquiry. This makes it impossible to address them by name obviously and many of those emails actually bounce (about 10% of the sites I emailed bounced).
In respect to mentioning something noteworthy about the respective blog/site I 100% agree. I did initially try to keynote something about the sites. After you get a series of bounced emails after putting thought into why you feel the site is a great fit it is discouraging. I should of made more of an effort with some of the later emails but the idea was once engaged we could start building a relationship.
We are no longer reaching out to partners with the Celebrity BMI but when we decide to produce another widget I will be sure to address everyone by name (when possible) and take the time to include something meaningful in relation to the particular blog/site.
We deeply appreciate your feedback and will be sure to take all of your suggestions into account on our next effort.
Ps. We love your blog! Keep up the great work.
Best,
Robert
Help at DietsInReview.com
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