I received a "chain" email today warning me about a new computer virus (a/k/a "worm") that arrives as an attachment to emails with the subject line: "Mail Server Report." I headed over to Snopes to see if this was a hoax or for real (btw, for those unfamiliar with it, Snopes is a great site for ascertaining the accuracy of any "chain" email you receive with "warnings" or incredible stories that seem too weird or wild to be true). I learned that this particular virus represented a real threat, albeit it originated it 2006, and the warning now making the rounds in March 2008 erroneously links this virus to the "Life is Beautiful" worm virus, which was a hoax).
Anyway, the virus arrives as an email asking unsuspecting recipients to download a .zip file attached to the email to install updates to eliminate the virus allegedly detected on the recipient's computer.
To avoid getting infected by this virus, the sensible advice given was:
Please do NOT open any emails with attachments from individuals or organizations you are NOT familiar with. Also, since it is possible for viruses to "spoof" or fake the sender's address, do NOT open emails with attachments even from people you know, but from whom you were not expecting an attachment or if the attachment is a file type or file name that you customarily do not receive from this person.
What does all this have to do with email marketing? Simply, it explains why it is a really bad idea to distribute mass email alerts or newsletters with attachments (e.g., a copy of a court decision that is the subject of the email alert). The reason is that, as per the advice above, tech-savvy recipients have been trained not to download attachments - even from people they know - unless they were expecting an attachment of a particular file type from a particular sender. By definition, a mass email alert or newsletter is not expected (although it may typically arrive at a certain time each month).
So sending your email alert or newsletter with an attachment is a sure way to DISCOURAGE clients and other contacts from reading the file you are telling them about. Yet, I see many law firms still sending attachments with their email alerts, and have been told by legal marketing folks that some law firm partners or other senior attorneys insist on it despite our very strong recommendations to the contrary.
Instead, if you want to send a PDF or other file to recipients of your email alert or newsletter (e.g., a copy of a court decision), upload the PDF or other file to your website or a "document library" provided by your email services provider, and then insert a URL linking to the file inside the email that recipients can click to access the file. For available solutions to do this, see our prior post describing digital document delivery solutions for files of any size.
P.S. attachments are bad practice for other reasons - among these, you can't track attachment downloads like you can track clicks on links, and so sending files as attachments prevents you from measuring reader interest in your file.
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