As the co-owner of an Internet marketing services firm, you might think my answer would be “yes, you can and should outsource your marketing”. But I couldn’t disagree more: no entrepreneur should “outsource” their marketing. At least not the understanding or thinking behind it.

My definition of marketing is generating, converting, satisfying and re-selling customers. Which is really what any business, by definition, should do. On that basis, outsourcing your marketing would be like outsourcing your business.

Perfectly fine to do, but it would make you an investor, not an entrepreneur.

That does NOT mean you can’t or shouldn’t outsource a range of marketing activities to people or companies that specialize in those activities. But the thinking behind those activities should come from YOU.

YOU should ideally know the most about your target market, what they want, the best way to deliver it to them, and the marketing strategies and tactics to optimally generate, convert, satisfy and re-sell them. By all means engage coaches, consultants and other service providers to help you gain clarity over these issues.

But remember - advisers are there to advise, not to MAKE the decision. The decision making rests with you. And for very good reason… since the buck rests with you too!

Of course, I’m preaching to the converted: you wouldn’t be reading this newsletter unless you took an active interest in marketing. But let this serve as further reassurance that the time you spend learning about marketing is time very well spent.

A report from Point Topic indicates that China probably has more broadband subscribers than the United States right now.

In June 2008 the U.S. had a total of 76.9 million broadband lines, while China had 76 million. However, based on the growth rate of broadband uptake in China - compared with a decline in U.S. broadband uptake - Point Topic believes China’s broadband subscribers probably overtook those in the U.S. sometime in August.

Point Topic’s findings are based on statistics and estimates provided by the primary suppliers of DSL lines, cable modems, and fiber-to-the-home services, along with data from service providers that resell products provided by such primary suppliers.

Source: Enid Burns, “China Surpasses U.S. Broadband by Population”, The ClickZ Network, October 14, 2008

Email service providers (”ESPs”) are increasingly encouraging - if not forcing - their clients to build “double optin” subscriber lists.

“Double optin” - more accurately known as CONFIRMED OPTIN is where someone signs up to your list and, before you send out any real content, you send them a message asking for confirmation that they really did sign up to your list and want to receive your material.

This process is designed to weed out subscribers who give you a fake email address, someone else’s email address, or who are unsure about, or not all that interested in, your material.

By all accounts, the result is that those who do confirm their subscription are more motivated - and more qualified - leads.

The downside is that you don’t get any “lukewarm” leads - people who may be legitimate prospects, but aren’t sure enough of you or the quality of what you have to offer, to confirm their name and email address. Nor do you get people who, for whatever reason, accidentally ignore your confirmation message (it happens!)

While this is a shame, the fact is, if you use an ESP you may not have any choice but to use a confirmed optin process. I don’t know of any ESPs that make this compulsory yet, but I do know that if you select confirmed optin for a given list with some ESPs (e.g. GetResponse and Aweber) they won’t let you change your mind and switch to single optin later.

You see, ESPs allow numerous clients to send email from the same mail servers. If someone uses one of these mail servers to send unsolicited email (spam) and this causes one or more ISPs to block email from this mail server, EVERYONE - including the legitimate emailers - using this server will have their email blocked.

Understandably, ESPs are no longer putting up with this… which means that YOU may eventually have to switch to confirmed optin.

What’s the immediate impact of this? Get used to lower (legitimate) signups to your list.

While fans of confirmed optin will say that “it’s the quality, not the quantity” of your list that counts, single optin advocates point out that you will end up missing out on a lot of legitimate leads that, for one reason or another, just don’t confirm their sign-up.

Blame it on the spammers.

Nevertheless, if you use a confirmed optin approach, there are things you can do to maximize the number of people who confirm their subscription. I’ll send you some tips on this in a future issue of the newsletter…