May 3, 2006

Losing Business to Blocked "Spam"

What is worse than getting 100 spam message a day? NOT getting the message from a prospective client who never hears from you (since you didn't get the message) and then buys from your competition.

Spam is a VERY big problem, but the reason I decided some months ago to receive all email and not use ANY spam blocking software is because I did not want to risk missing an important email.

The Wall Street Journal writes about this Recently, Mark Fleischer, a 24-year-old commercial real-estate broker in Tampa, Fla., was waiting for his client's final approval to go ahead and bid on a $175,000 condo after emailing him a list of the prices for comparable properties. But Yahoo Inc. blocked his client's response telling him to go ahead with the deal, and Mr. Fleischer lost the sale. Yahoo says in such cases it aims to help the sender fix the problem by sending him a rejection message with informational links.

As much as 20% of legitimate bulk commercial email -- which includes mail users sign up to receive as well as online statements and receipts -- gets caught in spam filters, according to Ferris Research, a San Francisco-based market researcher. The best filters, however, make such mistakes for email between acquaintances only about once a month, according to Ferris.

What to do?

a) minimize making your email address publicly available on the Internet where email harvesters scoop millions of email addresses

b) if you MUST ensure you get ALL email, do what I did and simply frequently check your email, deleting spam but resting at peace knowing that no email is being blocked.

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