Who can you trust?

If you’re like me, you receive a boat load of unsolicited emails everyday. As we try to combat this problem, we face a myriad of other challenges. For example, your spam filter somehow always grabs your biggest client’s email and you never see it. Yet those promises of male enhancement never seem to have any problem getting through. The new wave of spam doesn’t even include removal options, or if they do it raises concerns that the removal tool is just collecting new info to further elicit more email.

In 2004, we learned about the insidious tactic known as phishing. Phishing is the attempt to steal personal information via fraudulent e-mail. Last year incidents of phishing rose 20 to 30 percent each month, according the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Gartner analyst Avivah Litan released a survey showing that perhaps 2 million people had given away personal information to a phisher during one 12-month stretch. During the same time period, there were about $1.2 billion in unauthorized banking transfers, suggesting phishing was having a major impact.

Most consumers report they can no longer reliably tell the difference between real e-mail and scam e-mail. So, what does this mean to small business marketing? As with anything it is a blessing and a curse. Our customers will look to us to protect them.

We can and should protect their emails and be selective about their use.

· Offer opt-in and opt-out options in any campaign you send.
· Don’t post emails on the web as bots scour the web looking for email sources. Elect a forwarding option instead.
· Look for alternative avenues to communicate online. Blogs and RSS feeds allow the user to elect to receive the information.

You will gain tremendous credibility with your potential and current client base, if you simply respect their privacy. I believe it will be one of the key differentiators in what makes a successful marketing campaign in 2005.