Spammity spam! Any ideas how to convince people that I don't work for a spam company? As of Monday, I will be working for an email marketing company. They help companies come up with email campaigns. But they're very picky about who they help and what they do. You need to already have an established business relationship with the person before you send them an email (for instance, they've purchased a widget from your store). To get on their list of "good senders", you can only send email to those who actually ask to be on your list, and not just those who forgot to uncheck the checkbox when going through the checkout process. They also maintain lists of spammers for Internet Service Providers, so they know who to filter out. So the company is actually sort of "anti-spam", but most people will just think of spam when they hear what I do for a living BTW, my kids absolutely love hickory smoke flavored spam. We don't get it often, but it doesn't last more than a day or two.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
For most people I've met, the differentiating factor for them is "Is this an email I asked to receive, and do I want to receive it?" I think, from everything I saw before accepting the offer, that this company tries their darndest to make sure that emails are only sent to people who asked to receive them and who still want them. As an example, I still receive emails from buy.com, even though I haven't bought from them in years. But I don't unsubscribe because they might have a special one day that will make me buy from them.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I understand what you are saying Arbilad. And that makes sense, since people request to receive the mailings.
Recently I attempted to take an online test. After completing it, there were pages of things to "select", for instance click to receive info on various items/magazines,etc. I didn't want any of the items. HOwever this company made forced you to select something so you could get the survey answers. So I opted out of the spam fest and never got the answers to the test.
That must be part of the test! Just kidding. I hate those forced signups as well. For instance, recently I set my son an assignment to read candidate's positions from their respective websites. So, for instance, I went to the Obama website. You can't get to the home page of that site without first entering an email address. There is no way that I want to be receiving emails from the Obama campaign. So I entered a mailinator.com address. The way it works is this: Mailinator is a website that allows you to basically use throwaway email addresses. For instance, at the Obama site I entered "no@mailinator.com". If I had needed to check that email box for some reason (such as in your case to get survey results), you can just go to their website, www.mailinator.com, and enter the mailbox you used. In my case, that would have been "no". Then, without entering a password, you see all the contents of the emailbox. It requires no set up at all. So if you're caught with a sudden need for a one use email address, just make up anything as a mailinator.com email address, go to the website, and the email you're waiting for will be there. A word of caution, though: since no password is required,anyone can see the contents of an email sent to that address. It's great for once off emails. It makes no sense to use it as your normal email address.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I do some purchasing at my job. I take every opportunity to indicate I do not wish to be put on any mailing lists. Sometimes it happens automatically anyway, and I always click the "unsubscribe me" link. For the most part, it works. For two or three nasty companies, it does absolutely no good.
So, based on Arbi's new company, here is where ya stand in my book: * Company honors my request to never send me email: I'd be honored to have you as an in-law some day.
* Company sticks me on list automatically, but honors my 'unsubscribe' link clicking: If I see you stuck on the freeway, I will pull over and help you change a flat tire.
* Company bugs me and ignores my requests to stop bugging me: Better have someone else start your car for the next year, cuz I'm coming for ya!
LM
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And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men, seven hours every day. That would be the sweetest thing of all.
Yeah, I hate it when companies force their email on you. If I did my due diligence dutifully, then I am fairly confident that the company I'll be working at does not do that. I remember once, a long while ago, I was working email tech support. Someone called to complain. It seems that he had paid a company to send out spam for him. He was upset that they had used his personal email address as the "from" portion of the email. He was upset because he was getting all these complaints in his inbox. I thought it was poetic justice. He was feeling the effects of his spam. We couldn't discontinue his account because he hadn't sent the spam from his email address, but there was no way I was going to help him overcome the affects of his spam.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Here is a short blog entry off the company website describing their philosophy to email:
I have been thinking about the analogy between the email inbox and the postal mailbox we all have. It doesn't work.
It is true that the inbox is a replacement for where we receive news about friends, since handwritten letters seem to have been all but replaced by email (and to a lesser degree, instant messages, and text messaging).
But the inbox isn't your mailbox, it is your living room, a far more intimate and personal space. It is where your friends can drop by unannounced, and invited guests are welcome.
Now, when an invited guest comes into my home, and I suspect yours as well, they must ring the doorbell, be polite on their way in and during their visit, perhaps bring me a bottle of wine or other consideration, and thank me upon departure.
In other words, permission, value, respect, a timely unsubscribe, and relevancy of content.
Are you a valued guest in the inboxes of your subscribers? Do you ask permission to be there? Does the value of your mailings outweigh the intrusion? Do you honor unsubscribes faster than the legally proscribed limit? (You are being asked to leave, do you really think sticking around is a nice thing to do, or will it garner some concern and complaints?)
Do you act like a honored guest, or a drunken frat-boy who shows up for the fifth time this week with a keg at 1 a.m., pounds on the door, breaking in through a window, vomiting on the couch, and finally passing out on the kitchen floor, and refusing to leave when roused?
Would someone even passingly describe your mailings this way? Or, do your subscribers look forward to the arrival of your email with keen anticipation of something fun, new, and yes, desired?
How you act throughout the entire relationship with your subscribers has a direct effect on your reputation. They do tell their friends.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
arbilad wrote: Here is a short blog entry off the company website describing their philosophy to email:
Do you act like a honored guest, or a drunken frat-boy who shows up for the fifth time this week with a keg at 1 a.m., pounds on the door, breaking in through a window, vomiting on the couch, and finally passing out on the kitchen floor, and refusing to leave when roused?
I just love that decription of spam.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Someone at the job I'm leaving today suggested that when I tell people about my new job, I don't mention "email advertising", I should just tell people that I play piano at a whorehouse.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Someone at the job I'm leaving today suggested that when I tell people about my new job, I don't mention "email advertising", I should just tell people that I play piano at a whorehouse.
They will think you are really a defense attorney with that claim.
