CHRIS YEADELL WROTE:
>However I contacted a company today via email to see
>if they would be interested in advertising on our site.
>They offer a Broadband connectivity service. (something
>that our audience would be highly interested in as we
>are pioneers in broadband content in the UK.) I wrote a
>very personalised one off email to the guy concerned
>yet I received a rather abusive reply telling me where
>I could go shove my spam! What I wish to know is does
>what I did come under the heading of spam or is the guy
>over reacting. The last thing I want to do is cause
>offence!! Does anyone have an opinion on this?
Chris,
Compare it to the real world. If you tell the target
where their name came from I'm sure they will feel more
comfortable. If you DO NOT do that they can react as
you described. I am a Media Manager and I receive the
same offerings frequently but I only feel confortable
with those which:
1. Already know me or contacted me before by
phone or other vehicle
2. My name was indicated by someone I know (and
the person/company mentioned that)
Permission cannot be created by understanding you have
the perfect offer for the perfect target. Permission is
about relationships and Nick Usbourne can tell you a lot
about it.
Sure there is a lot of lack of good mood in the response
you got, and different people reacting differently but I
do believe that nobody can assume as a God that understands
the audience in a level that enables a kind of spam like
that.
If you compare e-mail marketing to direct marketing you may
think that "direct marketing is a kind of spam and nobody
complains about it." Maybe because people receive tons of
mail from companies they've never heard of before. But if
the sender truly knew it's audience deep inside, the average
response rate for direct mail would be 100% and not 1 or 2%.
How many were bored and were having a bad day at the moment
they received the mail? The Internet enables fast and almost
free communication and there is much more reply to e-mail
because of this capability.
Dennis Ferreira
I-Media Manager
OgilvyInteractive Brasil
http://www.ogilvy.com.br
(5511) 3024-9275
Received on Fri Aug 25 2000 - 09:29:03 CDT
