For several years, I have been the indirect but willing victim of a horrible misunderstanding! When someone asks my wife what I do for a living, her answer is not exactly what I would like ! Indeed, by a well-chosen shortcut ... I am a spammer !!! But be careful, not just any spammer. A spammer who sends his emails only to people who have agreed to receive them.
Why is my wife telling everyone I'm a spammer?
Spam, junk mail or spam is unsolicited electronic communication, primarily via e-mail. It is generally a question of sending large quantities of mail for advertising purposes.
Source: Wikipedia
If we stick to this definition, I have never been a spammer. Indeed, the crux of this definition is the phrase "unsolicited" ... And if you read this blog regularly, you know that this is not my cup of tea.
On the other hand, the shortcut is still very well chosen, between saying "my husband sends spam" and explaining "my husband manages an email marketing consulting business, that is to say that he offers companies to optimize their way of communicating by email, whether it is their newsletters, their promotional emails or transactional emails, such as purchase confirmations ..." (and by the way, it's still not clear at this stage of the explanation) ... we clearly see the fastest explanation ...
A matter of perception ... or bacon
If people consider most advertising emails to be spam, it is mainly a matter of perception ... and lexical alternatives. The expression "bacon has not yet managed to break through to the general public ... and it's probably not going to happen any time soon.
The nuance lies in the perception that the general public has of spam. If we adapt the Wikipedia definition, we could arrive at something like:
Spam is electronic communication that is perceived as unsolicitedThis is done primarily via e-mail. These are usually large-scale mailings for advertising purposes.
In this case, it is easy to understand that the average Internet user can classify emails from La Redoute and those from Kazakh pharmacies equally in the big spam basket.
How can we change this perception?
Here we enter a question that could well make us pronounce all the buzz words marketing of the moment: content marketing, engagement, inbound, ...
Need help?
Reading content isn't everything. The best way is to talk to us.
But if we had to keep only one word, it would be " respect " ! If you were a subscriber, how would you perceive the communication that is sent to you?
As a marketer, the promise is at the center of our discourse. Is it being delivered? Is the promise that is made at the time of purchase or at the time of signing up for your newsletter being kept throughout your email program?
E-thics
Ethics is a practical (action) and normative (rules) philosophical discipline in the natural and human environment. Its aim is toindicate how human beings should behaveThey have to act and be, between themselves and towards what surrounds them.
Source: Wikipedia
Ethics since the beginning of emailing has not been the priority of marketers. But in fact, what ethics are we talking about? To each his own, you might say!
I'm talking about the ethics that consumers have a right to expect from a responsible professional. Today, on the Internet, consumers are better armed than ever. And email is no exception to the rule, spam filters, complaint buttons, smart mailboxes, ... it is the consumer who decides if your email communication will reach its goal.
From this point of view, ethics (what the consumer expects) must be at the center of your marketing reflexion.
Not to adopt this point of view, ... is to take very great risks!
Photo credit: Marcus Quigmire - Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
9 réponses
Yes it's not tomorrow that the Bacon will enter the mouth of the 50 years old housewife 😉
When it comes to ethics, no matter how you write it, there is still a lot of work to be done I think. There is an improvement but it is only because of the tightening of the sanctions (blacklisting of the domain name) that they are paying attention. Too marketing centric instead of recipient centric.
Charles > And I sure hope the tougher penalties via ISPs/Webmails will continue 😉
And to speak B2B, the notion of prior consent (therefore solicitation) is not required (cf. CNIL)... it is legitimate to think that spam does not exist (in B2B exclusively, of course)!
That leaves e-thics... yes! 🙂
Matthieu > B2B is indeed even more problematic. But when you want to establish a lasting contact with a potential customer, you may wonder if respecting the law is really enough!
Interesting this notion of perception that is valid in many areas of the web and communication (or "advertising").
The B2B aspects are also particular and don't forget the particularities of the different countries if you send emails outside France! Opt-in and opt-out rules differ...
Ncolas > Thank you for your comment!
Again, on the different opt-in opt-out rules between countries, if the objective is a maximum respect of the subscriber, it is possible to have practices compatible with the majority of legislations!
It's funny, in my house it's not my partner who says "my partner is spamming" but me who says it directly like that to people who ask me what I did. At the beginning, I tried to explain, but people associate this job directly to spam (when I talk about volumes), so now, I make it simple: "basically I'm spamming".
Florian > I confess, I've already used the shortcut too 😉