Incoming! Getting Out from Under the Email Barrage

Email marketing is almost as old as the Internet itself. Pound for pound it's one of most effective, tried and tested methods of marketing available to marketers online. It's also one of the most abused marketing tools out there when in the hands of the unscrupulous, grab-the-money-and-run bunch.

If you shop online or conduct business here, you will encounter this problem; if you already haven't. There just isn't much of a way around it. But there are ways to lessen the impact it has on your internet activities and get control of your cyber life once again. It all boils down to something I learned in the infantry years and years ago:

"Most things in battle are accomplished by those willing to do the hard right over the easy wrong."

Early into the landing at Normandy on D-day, a battalion of infantry was pinned down on the beach. They were being cut to pieces by the crossfire from machineguns above them on their flanks and slaughtered by incoming artillery and mortar rounds. It seemed a certain death to the soldiers trapped there.

When the last of his companies was on the beachhead, the battalion commander, a young Lieutenant Colonel, stood up and screamed to his men:

"There are only two kinds of soldiers on this beach today: those that get the hell off of it and dead ones. Now, get up and move forward!"

They did. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Everyday is the beaches of Normandy for internet marketers and visitors. You are constantly rendered incapacitated by the cross fire of "the next big thing" and artillery barrages from the gurus as they accumulate and register all fire on your positions. Before you realize it, you have so much coming at you at once, you don't know which way to turn.

You're only left with two choices:

1: Sit there overwhelmed to the point of inaction and wait to die or

2: Get up and move out of the field of fire

This is what happens all too often with email marketing. The "enemy" probes your lines and when they find a place in your defenses they can breach, they pour through, in overwhelming numbers, and overrun your position.

The latest trend seems to be to get your mailing address and/or phone number. The "enemy" has learned that email marketing (the way the nefarious practice it anyway) is in decline. They need new methods to contact you to overwhelm you some more since they already know you are going to unsubscribe to their torrents of emails.

As soon as I see a request for my mailing address or my phone number, I withdraw as if I had just discovered a trip wire for a booby trap. I get endless amount of junk mail everyday and absolutely don't want salespeople calling me under any circumstances. They stand a better chance of flying the next space shuttle than getting my phone number.

Another trip wire I often see is registration for a batch of so-called bonuses. If it's a bonus, then give it to me; don't make me opt-in to one of your buddies email lists to get it. That's not a bonus, that's a sales pitch for another product (and usually not even a related one). While many would try to pass this off as integration marketing, it's not and is simply annoying at best.

The slicky boys are getting slicker by the minute it seems and employing more and more "less-than-candid" marketing practices by the day. My observation is it's best to watch where you put your cyber feet down to avoid tripping something you don't want blowing up in your face.

Run in, snatch your freebies and unsubscribe in the same breath. You can always get hold of them in the future if their offers are valid. If you don't, I guarantee your position will be overrun by the end of the week.

About the Author: Mike Lawson is a freelance writer, entrepreneur and internet marketing professional. Learn more about effectively marketing your business here:

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