SECRETS TO BUILD A PROFITABLE EMAIL LIST

Most social media that you know of are relatively new, but email marketing goes just a little further back. In fact, it was in 1978 that Digital Equipment Corp’s Gary Thuerk has sent the rst set of mass commercial emails. Thuerk did this to promote DEC machines. This is how he earned the nickname “Father of Spam,” although he only rattled a few hundred email inboxes. This was unprecedented, however, and had made a mark. He did have Ray Tomlinson to thank for. Seven years before the so-called spamming incident happened, Tomlinson invented a means to send messages from one computer to another. This was further strengthened by Larry Roberts’ invention the following year (1972), which was the rst email management system.

In 1996, the world of email further expanded. Instead of merely being limited to students and employees, everyone could create an email account. This was thanks to Hotmail, who fashioned itself as HoTMaiL during those early days. It was alluding to the use HTML to send messages across.

You could say that during email marketing’s early days, it already showed success. Marketers were relieved of the extra cost and e ort that came with reaching out to prospective clients one by one. On the other end, the client is pleased that marketing is reaching him in the comfort of his own home.

Unfortunately, as more companies jumped the bandwagon, pleasure became an annoyance. Unsolicited emails started bombarding inboxes, creating confusion. Before, people felt as if they were receiving personalized email. They felt like the marketer was talking to them directly. After getting bombarded with tons of email, they felt the reality of the ease of preparing those emails and sending them. Everyone was doing it, and it no longer felt special. Laws had to be made to protect both the marketers and the recipients.