(Enlightenment) Switch on your objectivity filter
Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on February 01, 2006
Email marketing is hotting up, and there's a lot of money (real and potential) available for related services.
This means vendors are (understandably) fighting harder than ever to get on your radar, and the volume of vendor-authored papers and articles is increasing.
Some are very useful, filled with unbiased information, advice and insight. Some -- including a few published in respectable media -- are valueless attempts to plug the vendor's products or services.
The following rules are kind of obvious, but they're worth repeating...
1. Consider where the author is coming from when interpreting an article. Say an author suggests that certification systems are the only solution to deliverability.
The inherent credibility of that statement falls if the author is the CEO of a company selling email certification systems. It doesn't make the statement wrong, but it should encourage you to be more circumspect about the article's contents.
2. Remember that media reports on email marketing issues (especially of surveys) are sometimes written by journalists forced to rely entirely on vendor sources for interpretation.
They may not have the background experience or skills to spot flaws in arguments, numbers or opinions. That's something you have to do yourself. Don't rely on journalists to do the thinking for you.
3. For vendor-written articles, you can usually tell who's offering real value and who's just trying to make lead generation or sales quotas. If you read a lot over time, you can soon learn which vendors and names you can trust. Keep a note of the good ones and watch out for their work.
(Personally, I think those that offer real value do more for their sales and brand than those who just produce self-serving sales literature, but that's another issue.)
4. Be especially careful with numbers quoted from surveys. Few people have a grasp of concepts like sample sizes and statistical validity. So always consider (where possible) such issues as...
>> who produced the number and why? Do they have any business interest in supporting a particular trend or result?
>> how did they get the number and from where? Is the survey truly representative?
>> what assumptions did they make? Are these assumptions valid?
>> is the number and its context relevant to *your* situation?
>> do other surveys or commentators or your own experience support this number?
Information is fast and mostly free online. Anyone can publish their opinion and anyone does. Reader beware!
This means vendors are (understandably) fighting harder than ever to get on your radar, and the volume of vendor-authored papers and articles is increasing.
Some are very useful, filled with unbiased information, advice and insight. Some -- including a few published in respectable media -- are valueless attempts to plug the vendor's products or services.
The following rules are kind of obvious, but they're worth repeating...
1. Consider where the author is coming from when interpreting an article. Say an author suggests that certification systems are the only solution to deliverability.
The inherent credibility of that statement falls if the author is the CEO of a company selling email certification systems. It doesn't make the statement wrong, but it should encourage you to be more circumspect about the article's contents.
2. Remember that media reports on email marketing issues (especially of surveys) are sometimes written by journalists forced to rely entirely on vendor sources for interpretation.
They may not have the background experience or skills to spot flaws in arguments, numbers or opinions. That's something you have to do yourself. Don't rely on journalists to do the thinking for you.
3. For vendor-written articles, you can usually tell who's offering real value and who's just trying to make lead generation or sales quotas. If you read a lot over time, you can soon learn which vendors and names you can trust. Keep a note of the good ones and watch out for their work.
(Personally, I think those that offer real value do more for their sales and brand than those who just produce self-serving sales literature, but that's another issue.)
4. Be especially careful with numbers quoted from surveys. Few people have a grasp of concepts like sample sizes and statistical validity. So always consider (where possible) such issues as...
>> who produced the number and why? Do they have any business interest in supporting a particular trend or result?
>> how did they get the number and from where? Is the survey truly representative?
>> what assumptions did they make? Are these assumptions valid?
>> is the number and its context relevant to *your* situation?
>> do other surveys or commentators or your own experience support this number?
Information is fast and mostly free online. Anyone can publish their opinion and anyone does. Reader beware!
[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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