There are times at work I feel like a broken record. Particularly when it comes to email marketing. Ever since I drank the kool-aid and jumped into email marketing, one constant has crept up into my vocabulary:
Permission.
There are many marketers out there who, to this day, view email as simply another way to be an interruption. Who view it as electronic direct mail. And here’s what I say to you people:
No.
Time and time again at work, when we’re in meetings thinking of marketing tactics and building awareness with people who’ve never heard of us, inevitably the topic will swing around to email. “Oh, we can send them a series of emails.” And people nod their heads in agreement… except me. The conversation usually goes something like this:
Me: “What list are we using?”
Other: “We can buy one.”
Me: “Have these people requested information about us?”
Other: “Well, no, not exactly.”
Me: “Can’t do it. Email doesn’t work that way.”
I understand it’s a difficult concept to realize that email is opt-in. It’s not like TV, or direct mail, or search marketing, where all you need is enough money to get in front of people. No, email requires permission. Not just ethically, but LEGALLY.
Today was no exception. I had to be the broken record in the room, and the mailing list was “only 250 people.” I had these visions of 250 complaints in one day. What happens when 250 complaints come through in that short of a time? I’ll bet it rhymes with “blacklisting.” So naturally, I railed against the idea, saying we can use email once we have the permission (gained through direct mail or other means) to do so.
Education is clearly still needed for email marketing, and not just for the kool-aid drinkers in the room, but the rest of the folks as well.
Loren McDonald has a great post about educating email marketers here. But I think it needs to go a step further: education for the common folk. What is CAN-SPAM? What does it mean when you hit “This is Spam” instead of delete or going through the unsubscribe process. What constitutes permission?
Respect for the consumer has to start with the education of the marketer.
So how do you go about educating the rest of your team? Any ideas?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I love your broken record analogy. It is amazing how many people still don’t get it. I had a friend tell me how he just got over 1,000 new email addresses by copying them all from a professional directory. He thought because he is a member he could email them all with a fantastic offer.
I’m still not sure he believes me when I told him he’d be overrun with the complaints.
Bob,
Wow, that’s pretty much doing everything wrong, isn’t it? Obviously the professional network didn’t have a listserv, which IMHO can be useful but terribly inefficient for replies.
Thanks for the comment! Hopefully your email marketing is going along much smoother than your buddy’s.
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