Got a ‘special offers’ spam email from a Plymouth hotel yesterday.
As it happens, I wasn’t interested in their offers but more importantly I don’t like being sent marketing emails that I haven’t specifically opted to receive.
How did this hotel chain get my email address? What made them assume it was ok to spam me? The fact that I’d given my business card to one of their people at a networking event.
A common assumption that many small business owners make is that exchanging business cards constitutes an ‘opt in’ to each others’ mailing lists. It doesn’t.
If small businesses can be forgiven that misunderstanding (after all, the law regarding spam is a bit cloudy) what’s unforgivable is when they make the process of opting-out difficult or uncomfortable. Failing to put an ‘unsubscribe’ link in marketing emails means people have no choice but to contact the business directly to ask to be removed from a list they never wanted to be on in the first place. Not great.
If that isn’t bad enough, there is a final way to really make sure they piss off a prospect completely. How? By taking offense when the prospect asks to be unsubscribed.
A few weeks ago I asked someone to remove me from their list. Their reply? “I’m disappointed you don’t remember giving me permission…” I didn’t. Notice how they imply that their spam was my fault? That line was enough to make sure I never recommend them to anyone else.
Despite it being toothless when it comes to enforcement, the law on spam is fairly simple and I summarise it here (in case you need to be reminded).
If you can’t get your head around that then remember, with spam you’re just three moves away from reputation self-destruct.
1) Send me something I didn’t ask for. 2) Force me to go out of my way to stop receiving it and 3) Get annoyed when I asked you to stop.
Wise words Sam and very timely given that to get my newest venture known in the right marketplace, I succumbed to purchasing a list of appropriate names from a reputable source to get started (we all have to start somewhere).
It appears that at least 25% of these names have viewed me as SPAM and asked to be deleted (in fact I did have an unsubscribe link very clearly on the introduction e-mail). However, your words ring so true about business cards as well and will change my attitude and behaviour from now own with regards them, even asking the individual if they mind me addting them to my distribution list.
Thanks for the reminder, we need all the help we can get.
Józefa
http://thepolgroup.com
Hi Jozefa, thanks for the comment. Ironically it got put into the Spam bin by my Akismet plugin – despite the fact there’s nothing spammy about it, and I know you’re a real person.
So apologies for not approving it or replying – I must seem very rude