Blacklisted? I just wanted to stop the spam
Posted by Trey Reeme on November 2nd, 2006
Inspired by the following bad experience and posts here, here and here, I’ll give you my two cents on email marketing.
Earlier this week, I got an email from CU Times. (I didn’t even remember what was being sold until I dug through my trash to grab this screenshot. But I didn’t forget the sender’s identity.)
So I clicked on the unsubscribe link as soon as I got the piece of spam, thinking I could spare my inbox from similar sales attempts. Instead I was led through a process I understood as: either you continue to receive spam or you can’t subscribe to our online publication at all. (If only all decisions were this easy!)
Here’s part of the confirmation email I received:
Goodbye from our Newsletter, sorry to see you go.
You have been unsubscribed from our newsletters.
This is the last email you will receive from us. We have added you to our “blacklist”, which means that our newsletter system will refuse to send you any other email, without manual intervention by our administrator.
Blacklisted? Since you left us once, don’t come back again?
Now I’ve sat on this post for a couple of days. I didn’t want to get into the whole spam debate, but it kept gnawing at me and I had to air it out. I wish email blasts would go the way of Crystal Pepsi. There. I’ve said it.
Am I making the case for all email marketing to be shelved? No. Brent talked me out of that post. He believes email marketing is a necessary evil in the marketer’s toolbox. What are you going to replace it with? RSS? Not yet.
So after a healthy interoffice debate this afternoon we came up with the following short list so that if you do rely on email marketing, here’s how you can ease the animosity felt by some of your recipients:
- Avoid big images and the “click here” ads.
- Cut the marketing fluff and get to the point.
- Personalize your messages like Jim points out with this PayPal email.
- Follow a pattern (send emails at regular intervals) and only interrupt that pattern for the truly important/urgent stuff. Anything else is crying wolf.
- Offer RSS as an alternative for folks like me.
- Allow subscribers to opt out easily. And treat them respectfully if you ever want their eyes again.
I’ll expand on that last point a little more. In other words, don’t treat your audience like they should count it a privilege to cast their eyes upon you. If we’ve learned anything in this new media landscape, that’s it, right?
Borders’ Bookstores “Borders Rewards” program is essentially the same.
While they track your purchases to give you discounts based on future usage, they send you weekly emails with coupons suggesting purchases.
If you do not agree to receive these advertising emails, you do not get any discounts by using their rewards card, and they will discard any discounts you already had earned.
Given that web advertising has gone so far that most people ignore it due to saturation, I suspect that having to receive emails from a firm and/or their partners in order to get a certain benefit/information will become the norm.
I have been leaning towards the no email camp. We can securely and safely communicate with customers in a targeted, tasteful, and contextual way within online banking. Granted that leaves the acquisition of new customers without a tool, but I think the email tool will be negative in the long run for the reasons you mention. Its just too hard to sort out real vs spam.
Wow! I guess I never really pay attention to my spam enough to let it bother me. I get so much I just automatically delete it. But to put you on a “blacklist.” That’s unreal to me. Why should customer service in the internet world be any different than customer service face to face? I mean, could you see someone at the counter saying, “I’m sorry, but if you don’t sign up for online banking, we can’t offer you an account.” I mean, come on, are we 5 years old or what?! Isn’t it all supposed to be about what the customer/member wants! If you DON’T want spam, you have that right. Why should it be forced on you in order for you to do business with that company?
Anonymous -
Its funny that you bring up Borders, because a big part of our conversation yesterday revolved around Borders as the case-in-point example for annoying image-heavy spam that just won’t stop.
They make me want to punch things.
Colin -
I think we’re almost there. Give RSS a year or two to go mainstream, and email marketing will be rendered completely worthless.
Financial institutions do have a communications advantage through online banking, other industries aren’t so lucky to have a day-to-day touchpoint.
I know FORUM Credit Union has a message system within their online banking that allows them to communicate both ways with their members. It’s basically just closed-off email. I think it’s great.
Jessica -
Sock it to em.
We also have “messaging” within Online Banking – but we get MUCH higher readership from messages emailed directly to member in-boxes. (So much so that we only use “messaging” for secure member/CU interactions – and no marketing!)
I think that honoring the member’s time – using the rules you outline for email marketing is key. We have TERRIFIC readership of our monthly eStatement emails (summarizing the offers of the month, seminars available, etc.) – but they are “opt in” to start and the member can “opt out” at any time (even if they get eStatements- they aren’t “tied” to each other).
While I have to admit that some retail uses of email are annoying – I think if you stick with the “rules” – members will value your communication more than they resent it.
Honestly,
I pride myself in being SPAM Free, so on the rare occasion I sign up for email alerts, I do it very carefully. I too have stopped my CU times emails, the image full emails and alerts that come at the oddest times, I am done.
Great Post.
V, good call in making your online banking messages security related. I agree – keeping the content relevant and regular will keep your monthly eStatement emails in the inbox instead of the spam folder. What you’re doing isn’t spam as long as it’s relevant and newsworthy. And if people want out, you let ‘em out without any questions asked.
BenJoe – You’re right, I’m very careful with email alerts too – I get my airline miles emailed to me, my credit card rewards statement, and that’s about it – other than the CU news pubs. But the image heavy CU Times promos just weren’t worth the clutter. Thanks for the comments!
Anonymous, great point about the rewards emails. I don’t mind seeing it come across with my frequent flyer miles and Amazon recommended books for example – but those are highly relevant. To me, my CU Times emails were expendable because they were just blanketing me with worthless promos. If it would’ve been targeted (ie relevant to me), I wouldn’t have minded so much. Or if they would’ve let me choose my preferences where I could’ve easily opted out of certain types of marketing and subscribed to others.
Colin, I almost used one of your quotes in the original post: “Banks should banish email marketing. It merely contributes to the problem, and the overall marketing benefit is minimal in the scheme of things when compared to the price”. I’m wondering how CUs and banks can continue to complain about phishing when a simple solution would be for them to tell members/customers “We don’t communicate via email. Period. Look at messages on our website and within online banking.”
Jessica: I always look forward to seeing your comments! Your energy is contagious, and I agree: Reputable companies shouldn’t force spam on customers. That’s the bottom line.
I think they simply misused the word blacklist here. I know at 1and1 hosting, their enewsletter distribution tool uses a process that instead of deleting an unsubscribe record from your database, you put the person’s email on a “blacklist”- wrong name. This is so if your file comes up in other searches to construct different email lists you can’t be mailed again- which would be a violation of CAN-SPAM.
Blacklist refers to a process where a sending IP gets “blacklisted” for abuse and thus receivers won’t accept the email sent from that IP address because their reputation number for deliverability has been lowered or eradicated.
They should add a line to their dismissal message that says ”’Blacklist’ doesn’t necessarily mean that we hate you.”
Also the real issue is that they should stop bundling their worthwhile content with their irritating marketing. Bad call on making those interwoven.