Dude, stop sending junk email
Stop Sending Junk Email
I live in a pretty small and tight-knit community and for the most part the junk email spam that I get (easily 50+ a day) is not from my local community. Once in a while I get added to a local community interest list without my knowledge (like a Chamber of Commerce sub-list), which I’m usually ok with; but five times now in the last 2 weeks I’ve been added to an individual local business mailing list without my permission.
In another recent incident my email address got added to a mailing list without my permission where the local business owner didn’t use Blind Carbon Copy (BCC:) when he sent his message. Everyone he mailed to (probably a couple hundred people) now had their email address exposed to unknown quantities of malcontent marketers. The reply to all responses were full of terse words cast upon the spammer. It was not pretty.
Now I’m sure you already know that sending unsolicited email is a big no-no for honest business owners – especially for local firms because word travels at light speed when it’s close to home. But if you’ve lived under a rock for the past decade, now you know. Stop sending junk email. It’s not only annoying, it’s an invasion of privacy and a waste of your marketing time – unless you’re ok with making one sale every 12.5 million emails sent.
Yesterday’s email took the cake. Once every few days I check my junk mail folder to see if I mistakenly overlooked anything important. And there it was – an unsolicited message from a local health care insurance salesman. Here’s what it looked like. (contact info redacted to protect the guilty)
At first I was annoyed that this local guy spammed me, but after I pulled it from my junk mail folder and read it I decided it would be fun to pick it apart piece-by-piece and critique his poor marketing etiquette.
1) I was added to his list without my authorization. Now it’s quite possible that he got my name from the local Chamber of Commerce list or local business directory. Our company is well-known locally, and my last name is part of the business name so it would be easy to put 1 and 1 together.
The problem was that he arbitrarily added me to his list without asking me. That’s bad for him, too. He has no idea if I’m a good prospect. Had he bothered to pick up the phone and called me, or sent me a postcard, or even introduced himself at a business event – at least I wouldn’t automatically disqualify him as being my insurance provider.
I will never call him now because he has shown me he’s lazy, he lies (you’ll see soon), and he doesn’t respect me. If I was a total douchebag I’d turn him in for a Can Spam Act violation, not that he would ever get in trouble since it has no teeth. It’s the douchiness factor that’s at stake here. BTW = is it douchier to spam people or to turn someone in for being a casual spammer? I’ll let you answer that one.
One thing is clear, though. As ineffectual as the Can Spam Act is, the real danger to the spammer is loss of IP access. All of the big internet providers have cracked down hard on spamming not only because they get a ton of complaints by users, but also because spam is a huge load on their servers.
If a marketer gets too many complaints the internet service provider will pull the plug on the spammer, oftentimes without warning. IPs also use and share blacklists of entire domains of known spammers. Professional spammers are pretty crafty and can deliver their email crap other ways, but “Sam the Spammer’s” local business probably relies heavily on his IP, and since his choices are limited he should be very careful to not send spam.
The ethical way to use email marketing is by asking permission and then using a formal (double) opt-in process. If Sam the local Spammer had sent me a simple email asking if I would be interested in joining his list – and I said yes – then it would be ethical for him to send me an email which requires me to at least click a link or button authorizing Sam the local Spammer to – well – spam me. In a future article I’ll go over how to create effective autoresponse messages.
I’m familiar with 3 very good and affordable double opt-in autoresponder programs:
Aweber – Claims to have the highest delivery rate amongst all autoresponder programs. This is my favorite for mid-sized lists. What I like best about Aweber is that the creators of the program are email marketing ninjas and will send you TONS of free super helpful email marketing advice. They’re running a special now – sign up for $1 for the first 30 days. If you don’t like it they’ll even refund your buck.
Constant Contact – I liked this service, but I found it a little too “corporaty” for my likes. I prefer down-to-earth, approachable business models and Constant Contact, while still very good, was a little too big for my britches. It was my first autoresponder – and it worked well. Currently they’re running a 60-day free trial.
MailChimp – Very UN-corporate-like, which for me was appealing. What I liked most about it is it’s cheap, straightforward, and pretty easy to use. I did have some issues configuring the signup formatting but it wasn’t a huge issue. Be aware that I have heard from others that Mailchimp is very picky about the type of business you run and they frown upon scammyish industries (like gambling, health juices, MLM, etc.) , even if you’re legitimate.
2) It showed up in my junk mail box – and the meat of the message was an image that I needed to right click to be able to view. Never ever – in a million years – make your most important content an image. 2 reasons:
a. because, just like in my example above, by default many email programs disable automatic image views. There are image Trojan Horse viruses circulating and if your email auto opened the image – BAM – guess what you’re going to be doing for the next couple of hours (or more)? That’s right, trying to get rid of that Trojan Horse.
b. because only text is searchable, not images, videos, or other multimedia. Now ok, he’s sending me what appears to be a rate quote and it is a short message, so in this example we don’t get the full scope of the issue of non-searchable components. If it was a longer sales letter and if I was interested, I may be inclined to hit CTRL-F (find) and search for a particular word.
Regardless, in email marketing less is more and copy is king. An image is not a wise choice for your meat and potatoes content. Unless you’re selling art, images are designed to enhance the message and help sell.
I will give Sammy the Spammer one point for including an opt-out link at the bottom of his message. Always include an easy opt-out button – preferably a one-click-and-you’re-out button. As a consumer there’s not much worse than being stuck in a loop of unwanted junk email.
Scott
Big Banana of Business
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- is it okay to send unsolicited emails to businesses Im trying to sell to
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Comments
Scott,
This article about email marketing was right on target and the misuse of it is lessening it affect as a marketing tool. By reporting unsolicited emails as spam you can help stop those misusing the technology by getting their account shut down. There is usually a button for this in the email.
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