Clean It Up

UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: MWC on May 08, 2012, 06:59:21 pm

Title: Canvassing via email
Post by: MWC on May 08, 2012, 06:59:21 pm
Does anyone ever send out emails to companys / schools etc offering services and quotes.

If so would you be kind to share the content of such email.

Darren
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: Carl@Cwc on May 08, 2012, 07:00:14 pm
good post  ;)
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: MWC on May 08, 2012, 07:06:08 pm
good post  ;)

Do you mean that or I am missing something?  ???
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: Steve Sed on May 08, 2012, 07:10:07 pm
The content of the email is one thing, but first you need to find out who to send it to and their email address.
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: colin purewater on May 08, 2012, 07:16:49 pm
I've done it 90 0dd emails to schools block management business etc

Got 1 school/ nursery out of it

Very time consuming job tho got to do a good bit of research
Yo make sure it goes to the right person.

I ain't bothered since...
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: Johnny B on May 08, 2012, 08:56:47 pm
Darren (MWC)

That's a really good idea! I'm off to do some research.

John
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: MWC on May 08, 2012, 09:02:43 pm
Darren (MWC)

That's a really good idea! I'm off to do some research.

John

Thanks pal, I would really appreciate if people would share the content that we would consider relavent to email out.

Not really after something like:

Helllo,

We offer.......

Thanks
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: Smudgeoff Cleaning Services on May 08, 2012, 09:18:56 pm
There is a free service called mail chimp. I think you can send up to 20,000 emails a month.

They also do a charged service which costs big time but you can send millions...
I am in the process of doing it, the hard part is getting all the email addresses.

Daz
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: H S and Son on May 08, 2012, 10:31:05 pm
Its the sort of job you need a very wet week to do it in to apply yourself thoroughly to. There was a very good post on here about 3 months ago on tactics you need to adopt to canvass commercial work. If you find that post it'll probably save you a day in wasted time and energy.

I can't remember who it was by nor on what thread, but it was highly informative and educational. So much so that you could almost be mistaken into thinking I myself had posted it  ;D
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: supernova77 on May 08, 2012, 10:43:17 pm
Quote
Does anyone ever send out emails to companys / schools etc offering services and quotes.

If so would you be kind to share the content of such email.

Darren

Be careful, you can get in to trouble as it would be classed as SPAM email.

Andy
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: Tom White on May 09, 2012, 12:05:09 am
Quote
Does anyone ever send out emails to companys / schools etc offering services and quotes.

If so would you be kind to share the content of such email.

Darren

Be careful, you can get in to trouble as it would be classed as SPAM email.

Andy

Yes, I read about that.  You can only send 'spam' to a business/person whom you already have had some kind of business dealing with.  The law is quite tight on 'spam'.
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: MWC on May 09, 2012, 12:13:36 am
Its quite interesting the mention of spam, but what's the difference emailing and dropping in a leaflet?
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: GDwindowcleaning on May 09, 2012, 12:33:58 am
With all the effort required to get the emails it would be 100 times easier to pick up the phone and call them!

Then send the email.... It might get read then, if you just blanket email it will never be read and all your efforts will be wasted....

Dont be lazy....
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: Tom White on May 09, 2012, 12:58:40 am
Its quite interesting the mention of spam, but what's the difference emailing and dropping in a leaflet?

Physically, there's a world of difference.  Spam is electronic data, passed by underground cables.  A leaflet is dropped through a letter box.

But the law governing spam is called the Electronic Commerce Act; there's strict laws that covers e-mail spam, but they don't cover leaflet drops.

This could be a start to understanding it (I haven't read it):

http://www.out-law.com/page-431
Title: Re: Canvassing via email
Post by: Paul Coleman on May 09, 2012, 11:52:03 am
Its quite interesting the mention of spam, but what's the difference emailing and dropping in a leaflet?

Because if everybody sent spam, the internet would grind to a halt as servers became overloaded, companies would have to pay employees to filter it all out/delete the posts, a company with a relatively small capacity server could become so inundated that it could interfere with their ability to trade profitably.
You see, although you might only send 30 or 40 targeted emails per day, it's not just about the ones you send.  It's also about the millions of spams for viagra/fake rolex watches/date a ditzy blonde/buy shares in Nigerian oil wells/send £50 to claim your lottery preze etc. etc.  No distinction is made because there could be a big fuzzy area between what is legal and what isn't.  Therefore, the simplest way is to make receiving emails an opt-in exercise rather than opt-out.  If you think it through, it's the only practical way to do it really.
Furthermore, if you start sending unsolicited commercial emails, if enough recipients start filtering your email address to go into "blocked" or "spam" folders (on webmail accounts rather than hard drive filtering), eventually the domain name (i.e. your service provider's name) can go onto a banned list.  No legitimate ISP would want that to happen of course and they would have every right to terminate your account.  In reality that would take a lot of spam to get on such a list.  What would be more likely to happen is that a recipient could complain to your ISP and if it was relatively minor, they would give you a final warning.
The other issue is that bandwidth costs money.  The argument could be "Why should the ISP have to increase their prices to everyone so that some of its customers can send unsolicited commercial email?

However, dropping a leaflet in is less intrusive.  OK so someone will be paid to pass it up the food chain or drop it into the recycler but that is as far as it goes regarding effects on others.  No-one else is subsidising you for it (like paying for extra bandwidth).
Not sure how much bandwidth I've used posting this either  :)