Email marketing spammers have given us a few things. They taught us how to quickly locate and hit the "Delete" key, and they've made it so that most of know what a Bayesian filter is, and how to configure it to route the rubbish to our spam email boxes.
There are slow workdays, however, when all of this spam email can be good for something: entertainment. Next time you need a brain break, pull open your spam box and browse through the subject lines. I'd discourage you from opening any of them, just because of computer viruses and worms, but just reading through the subject lines can be good for a laugh (albeit a very cheap one).
It's immature, but it's also a good way to get a sense of how the other half markets using email. Personally, I think it's far less than half of the marketers out there. That's just a hunch, but it's certainly something to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Bridging the Gap
It's interesting how big of a disconnect there is between those who send email marketing emails, and those who receive them.
Direct mail marketers are particularly bad at recognizing this gap. It seems like businesses spend a fortune sending out direct mailings to customers' homes. Most of these mailings, I suspect, end up going right in the trash or the shredder.
Then, after a hard day's work, these same marketers go home, open their mailboxes, and proceed to throw away all of the junk mail with their name on it.
Email marketing seems to work the same way. I've never met anyone who's delighted to read their spam email...everybody seems to treat it like a nuisance. It begs the question: do enough recipients read it and convert that it becomes a profitable campaign?
My take is trite, but: money isn't everything. Email marketing is next to free, but for every one person that converts, these marketers are likely infuriating another 100 or 1000 who have to hit the "Delete" button. From a branding perspective, it's an egregious violation of trust, so it's really no way to build a business.
If you happen to be starting a business venture, and you think you need to buy a spam email list to get it off the ground, please, go back to the drawing board and try to devise a business strategy that doesn't require you annoy millions of anonymous people.
You work too hard to spend your day being hated.
Direct mail marketers are particularly bad at recognizing this gap. It seems like businesses spend a fortune sending out direct mailings to customers' homes. Most of these mailings, I suspect, end up going right in the trash or the shredder.
Then, after a hard day's work, these same marketers go home, open their mailboxes, and proceed to throw away all of the junk mail with their name on it.
Email marketing seems to work the same way. I've never met anyone who's delighted to read their spam email...everybody seems to treat it like a nuisance. It begs the question: do enough recipients read it and convert that it becomes a profitable campaign?
My take is trite, but: money isn't everything. Email marketing is next to free, but for every one person that converts, these marketers are likely infuriating another 100 or 1000 who have to hit the "Delete" button. From a branding perspective, it's an egregious violation of trust, so it's really no way to build a business.
If you happen to be starting a business venture, and you think you need to buy a spam email list to get it off the ground, please, go back to the drawing board and try to devise a business strategy that doesn't require you annoy millions of anonymous people.
You work too hard to spend your day being hated.
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