Permission means permission
31 Aug 2008 | Angie H
Email marketing can be a very positive thing. It can result in a surge in sales for even the most modest of companies. But you need to do it right.
I've been noticing that there's a nasty habit growing amongst companies all too eager to jump on the email marketing bandwagon. It's not list renting or buying (that's a cardinal sin in email marketing by the way), it's grabbing email addresses displayed on websites. Apparently some folks seem to think that if you list your email address on your website, they can add it to their email list. Nothing could be further from the truth.
With email being such a popular means of communication for both work and play, people's inboxes are constantly overflowing. The barrage of spam that some get certainly doesn't make things any easier. As a result, we're getting very protective of our email addresses. And we have every right to. So when Company X decides to put Jane Smith on a mailing list that she didn't ask to be put on, not only is Company X annoying the crap out of Jane Smith, they're also shooting themselves in the foot.
Company X may very well be a solid company with work that aims to save the world. But Jane Smith won't see it that way and it's unlikely that she'll care. No, Jane Smith will see that she got an unsolicited email from Company X and label them immediately as spammers, who, as anyone who hasn't been hiding under a rock the past 10 years knows, are the scum of the digital world. Immediately that one email tarnishes the image and reputation of Company X. One email to someone doesn't seem like much, but multiply it by hundreds and the effect is much more substantial1.
- Let me make one thing clear. Taking a publicly available email address and then sending the owner of said email address a one-time message in hopes of generating a lead or relationship is, in my view, NOT the same thing as putting that email address on a list and sending more than one message. ↩
