Oh! You Do Spam.
Is email marketing headed the way of telemarketing -- disliked and not respected? Are we killing the goose that lays the golden egg? Jeanne gives you her thoughts -- and asks for yours.
Is email marketing headed the way of telemarketing -- disliked and not respected? Are we killing the goose that lays the golden egg? Jeanne gives you her thoughts -- and asks for yours.
Have you ever been in a situation like this?
I’m at a social event, having a chat with someone I’ve just met. The person asks what I do for a living. I reply that I’m an email marketing consultant. She makes a face and says something like, “Oh! You do spam.”
That’s it. Try as I may to defend myself, in a split second I’ve gone from casual acquaintance to email fiend.
When this happened last month, the culprit was a teenager, the child of an acquaintance and, taking it a step further, the next generation of consumers we’ll be trying to reach via email. I began to think. Are we killing the goose that lays the golden egg? Is what some companies do today going to cause a backlash against all email marketing?
I fear email is headed down the same path telemarketing is on, at a greatly accelerated pace. Have you spoken to anyone recently (outside the telemarketing industry) who likes telemarketing? At least 26 states now have some form of “do not call” regulations on the books. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a national do-not-call list. Many groups oppose the FTC recommendations, including:
Does any of this sound familiar? Twenty-six states also have some type of antispam law on the books (see Spam Laws). Both this Congress and the last have discussed federal legislation, but so far nothing has been passed by both houses. The FTC recently cracked down on “deceptive email marketing.” People are choosing their corners:
(Side note: Have you noticed the terminology creep? I’m showing my age here, but back in the day, “opt-out” meant the “Yes, send me this email” box on the registration page was prechecked. For the most part, when people say “opt-out” today, they are referring to what I think of as spam with an unsubscribe link. Much of this has to do with industry lobbying efforts mentioned above. After all, “opt-out” sounds much better than “unsolicited commercial email” or “spam,” doesn’t it?)
Each month, more organizations embrace the opt-out or “spam with an unsubscribe link” practice. Here are three examples I received in the past few months:
Why is this happening? It’s viewed as a way to optimize email marketing by forcing as many names as possible onto the lists used to market additional products and services. Trouble is, it’s a short-term strategy (see my article on negative option opt-out) that creates consumers who dislike email promotions that are forced on them. It hurts the entire industry in the long run.
Enough about me. What do you think? Is email marketing headed the way of telemarketing? Have you needed to lobby within your organization for opt-in? If so, what was the outcome? Is this an issue you, as an email marketer, are interested in or actively involved in? Will opt-in win in the long run, or will email addresses be fair game for marketers unless recipients take action to unsubscribe? I’ll publish your comments in an upcoming column. (If you don’t want me to use your name or your company’s name, let me know.)