Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow
(Tactics) Where Do We Draw The Line?
There's a debate going on through the columns of MediaPost about when it's OK (and if it's OK) to send a single unsolicited email to a potential business contact.
This debate goes to the heart of the idea of permission and email marketing and reminds me of similar discussions in the 1990s.
It also relates to what I said earlier in my 1000th post celebration about marketers having a second chance to get it right with email marketing.
It's very easy to find specific examples of where it's OK to send a "stranger" a commercial email. The problem is that many would-be emailers are continually pushing at the edge.
If it was OK for person A, then surely it's OK for person B, too? And person C. And so it escalates. Before you know it, we're back to overloaded inboxes and hordes of email users crying "spam! spam!" while waving pitchforks and burning torches.
Very often UCE is sent by well-meaning marketers because it's cheap, easy and quick, not necessarily because it makes the most sense.
And very often the justification for doing so is based on the idea that "we have this super service that people are crying out for if only they knew about it, so they'll be so grateful for my email."
That's often (not always, but often) just a convenient assumption used to self-justify behavior that scratches the curve of what's ethical or acceptable. And in my experience, it's an assumption that rarely holds true.
If you know so much about me and my needs you probably already have a relationship with me and don't need to cold call via email.
There is no easy answer to the question of unsolicited single emails, but we would all do well to err on the side of caution lest we bring about the untimely demise of that golden Anser Anser.
There's a debate going on through the columns of MediaPost about when it's OK (and if it's OK) to send a single unsolicited email to a potential business contact.
This debate goes to the heart of the idea of permission and email marketing and reminds me of similar discussions in the 1990s.
It also relates to what I said earlier in my 1000th post celebration about marketers having a second chance to get it right with email marketing.
It's very easy to find specific examples of where it's OK to send a "stranger" a commercial email. The problem is that many would-be emailers are continually pushing at the edge.
If it was OK for person A, then surely it's OK for person B, too? And person C. And so it escalates. Before you know it, we're back to overloaded inboxes and hordes of email users crying "spam! spam!" while waving pitchforks and burning torches.
Very often UCE is sent by well-meaning marketers because it's cheap, easy and quick, not necessarily because it makes the most sense.
And very often the justification for doing so is based on the idea that "we have this super service that people are crying out for if only they knew about it, so they'll be so grateful for my email."
That's often (not always, but often) just a convenient assumption used to self-justify behavior that scratches the curve of what's ethical or acceptable. And in my experience, it's an assumption that rarely holds true.
If you know so much about me and my needs you probably already have a relationship with me and don't need to cold call via email.
There is no easy answer to the question of unsolicited single emails, but we would all do well to err on the side of caution lest we bring about the untimely demise of that golden Anser Anser.
Permalink | December 19, 2005 |
0 comment(s)
Get posts like this: as an RSS feed | biweekly email | via Twitter
Get posts like this: as an RSS feed | biweekly email | via Twitter
0 Comments:
Comments closed for this post
