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Email Marketing, Business & Monkeys

Rant: How To Sound Like A Spammer

September 4th, 2006 | by Ben

Istock_000000253520smallI wrote about this already here, but it’s worth repeating. If you’re evaluating and calling up email marketing services, do not use the word "BLAST." As in, "Hi, I want to blast a list with my promo" or, "We have ten million opt-in subscribers (yeah, right) and we want to blast them with a newsletter."

"Blast" connotes mass destruction. Use it for describing machine guns, cannons, missiles, or tanks. Not if you’re a permission marketer.

When someone uses the word "blast" with us, it raises some red flags. It’s like walking into a car dealership and asking, "Sooooooo, which one of these will outrun the cops?" or like walking into a bank with a ski mask on. It must be some relic of the old fax-blasting days.

We’ve turned lots of potential customers away, just for using that word. It’s an indicator that the person just hasn’t done his research about permission marketing, email marketing etiquette, and spam complaints. He obviously thinks email is a one-way-street, so is probably not too concerned about proper list management.

Instead of "blast" try, "communicate." As in, "I’d like to setup an email marketing system so I can communicate with my customers." Think how peaceful our inboxes would be if we stopped blasting, and started communicating.

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Posted in Spam Topics | 10 Comments »

10 Comments

    • John Aberle says:

      I agree with you in concept. However, I’m confused. My understanding of email service providers is that there are two forms of email campaigns. The autoresponder function sends out upon some activity, like sending the bonus when someone opts-in. Additionally, you can send out mailings every so many days after the previous one (or the original one). The other style email campaign in my understanding is the blast where I send out a mailing to everyone on my list (or sublist) for an event or for my weekly newsletter. What is your terminology for this second type if you don’t like the word “blast” or don’t you have that capability?

      Reply to this comment
    • John Aberle says:

      Ben, why can’t I read the comments? When I try to click on 2 Comments nothing happens. Aren’t you trying to develop a community? I got your reply and wanted to quote it in my blog post. But since I can’t read the Comments, I’m wondering if you approved my comment. Additionally, I’m wondering if you have a Do Not Follow policy which seems counter productive if you want people promoting MailChimp.

      Reply to this comment
    • John Aberle says:

      Ben, my apologies for the last comment. When I went to my email to check on your comments, I found this link. I am, however, still puzzled about why I couldn’t get to the Comments by clicking on the word. In case you can’t tell from my comment about 2 Comments, I used the link I originally commented from.

      Reply to this comment
      • Ben says:

        No worries. I’m sure it’s a glitch of some sort with the code. We’ve had reports of other weirdness in the comments area too. We’re in the process of updating the entire blog area, so hopefully these issues will go away. Just out of curiosity, what browser do you use?

        Reply to this comment
    • John Aberle says:

      I use FireFox,Ben.

      By the way, inspired by your blog post, I wrote one myself on the need for a different expression for blast because it’s not a soft sell marketer’s attitude either. I invite you to check it out at http://tinyurl.com/ozk9fe.

      Reply to this comment
      • Ben says:

        Firefox. Hmm, that’s odd. I use it too, and have no issues. We’ll look into it. Soft Sell – now that’s my kinda marketing.

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