DNA Vertical Marketing

 

Did you Get an Email from David Almodovar?

If you post press releases on the Internet you may have received an email from CEO David Almodavar from a company called DNA Vertical Marketing based in Tampa Florida 33614.

If you haven't, this post is an article on email marketing ethics and Internet marketing strategies.

There is personal evidence that leads me to believe that DNA Vertical Marketing uses my client's email addresses, that are included in press releases that we post, for their marketing campaign.  They are not targeting my clients specifically, their email addresses are just part of their email solicitation campaigns.

The company has sent me and my clients email solicitations for their social bookmarking services to better optimize press releases and blog posts. These emails offer competing services to those that we offer our clients.

The link to our press release postings is based on a correlation of the emails I have received from them and that the email addresses correspond to those used in press releases.  How they actually obtain these email addresses is unknown.

Email Marketing Ethics

 

It would not be so bad if I got one or two of these emails a year but we get them on a regular basis, and they appear to be related to when we post a new press release.   In fact I recently received two emails to the same email addresses I manage, two hours apart with the exact same email. 

It is my opinion, that my clients are also getting these emails from my press release work and its very aggravating.  My clients have forwarded these emails and asking about the legitimacy of service presented by DNA Vertical Marketing.

 

Free Markets - Open Competition

 

I'm all for competition.  Pickup the phone, send a letter or write a compelling sales email addressed to a person at a company. 

DNA Vertical Marketing emails are not addressed to a "person" in the organization who's email they are using for marketing. That information is often in a press release or blog post. They do not reference the target company name in their email that they are addressing. That information is in a press release. 

So maybe they are not taking these email addresses from press releases or are they just not saving that information?

Personally, I would not recommend to my clients that they send solicitation emails without a contact person being addressed in the email.    If you are going to make the effort to send a solicitation email, address it to a real person.

What do you think about unaddressed email solicitations?  Send me your opinion

 

DNA Vertical Marketing Tactics

I just hate being bombarded by emails from people who pickup my blog posts or press release posts and send me all sorts of junk.  My experience would say that this is just another case of a company looking for an inexpensive way to get to decision makers based on an email address that is supposed to be for media contacts or buyers.

The email address is in the public domain so DNA Vertical Marketing is not doing anything wrong by using the email address.  

The question is do you take that email address and send out unaddressed emails or do you take the time to create a personalized message and call out specially how they came across your email address.

What are your thoughts?

Software programs are cheap that allow people to scrape email addresses from the Internet.  They can target a press release site and in minutes generate hundreds of email addresses used in articles.

If a person scrapes email addresses by hand, it would seem sensible to me to also copy down the contact name and company name for an email.  This would allow a company to write a personalized email solicitation.

I am not claiming that DNA Vertical marketing is scraping email addresses.  I have no idea of how they come up with their marketing lists. They may feel  that unaddressed sales emails are effective.   I strongly disagree.

But I do know that sending the same email to the same email address, hours apart is not a way to win business via email marketing.  My clients don't appreciate it. I can't speak for everyone who posts press releases on the Internet, but I would predict that they would feel the same.

 

An Email From David Almodavar

 

David Almodavar sent me an email on February 15, 2009 and stated that his email marketing campaigns are not doing anything wrong.  He points out that the email are compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.   I'm not a lawyer so I take him at his word.

He asked me to edit my article to not characterize his work as spam, and I have complied. 

I have amended my commentary to state my opinion and the facts of my experience with DNA Vertical Marketing emails.

He asked that I take down the sample email ,that was sent to me, which was formerly posted on this page.  I have complied.

He asked that I  I take down my Digg bookmark for this page.  I have asked Digg to remove the bookmark which should drop out of their index shortly. I have complied.

You Decide

 

The fact that DNA Vertical Marketing has an "opt-out" at the bottom of the email does not help matters to me.  Is it SPAM?  Accord to their CEO it is not, and they are in compliance with the law.

So it's not legally spam but practically it is aggravating that I'm opening my clients up to unwanted solicitations that appear to be automated and impersonal, from the good work that I do.

Since companies like ours offer bookmarking services for companies we represent, you can understand why this is a concern.  In theory, the question comes back to competition and ethics.  Competition is good and may the best company win.

I don't agree with the tactics and presentation of the offers that are being sent by DNA Vertical Marketing to create new accounts.

 

Your Thoughts

 

If you have received an email from DNA Vertical Marketing, send me a note and tell me how you think they are obtaining your email address. 

If you have any comments on email marketing, send me a note and I'll post some of the best responses.

You can send me a note to:  brian@seonj.com

 

 

• 
  Upon request by DNA Vertical Marketing, I took down the email that they sent to me.

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