Is Spamming A Crime Or Necessary Evil:
Many years ago where the internet is not popular, the hot topic was junk fax! And my task was to educate marketing people not to send "junk fax". The group of people I am speaking to are marketing people from all over the world. But how we define junk fax and at the same time look at the what vendors or manufacturers need to do to reach out to their potential customers is a tough job. Using the same principle I would like to present another dimension of good direct email.
May I ask - are you a consumer yourself? I believe the answer is "yes". In one of the anti-spamming sites they recommended alternatives for mass email like traditional advertising etc. Whatever marketing activity that was recommended have our full support. But the next thing I have on my mind is the marketing cost. Nobody or company have unlimited funds to spare. Sure, as a manufacturer I can put up 10 advertisements, 100 advertisement and probably spend $1 to $20 mil on marketing to reach the customers. I wonder where will this money come from? Ultimately it will be from the customer or consumer, right?
So now, the next question - is spamming a cost and irritation to the user? Yes and no. It really depends on what was send. In all events or situations it is only a facet we see and we need to study it at all angles to achieve the best results. On one hand there is the manufacturers and on the other the customers. Here we have a situation that we need to inform and cut cost and on another we should be informed but not receive uncalled for info. The next thing we need to know is that even if email is not used, vendors will use fax or direct mail to deliver the info to this group of people. Therefore the flow is definite : Information following from manufacturers to consumers. Whilst on the other side of the story - hey man, my mail box (email or even letter box) is full of rubbish.
Taking all the cost into consideration, I would think email should be the cheapest form of communication but the onus should lie on the manufacturers to minimize to send un-needed information. One area is not to send repeated mails or on the same subject if the user does not want it. A mechanism must be in place and they will have to prove that they have done their part to send the correct information to the possible group of customers.
Looking from various angles, I would think that good info is good email and right info is best email. Spamming should be defined as unwanted letters from repeated sender within a given a period of time for e.g. 3 months. If they send good info and user don’t appreciate it. It should not be send again. If the sender insist on sending more info, even good info, it will be consider spamming.
But be careful how you get your list. If it is your customers' customers list, it is probably ok. But do not buy from any source like the way it is done for mass mail. There are technologies that if they received a complaint, it can block all you emails to s specific group of people and also at the same time block the ISP mails. This is extremely dangerous as you will be locked out by your ISP as well. So consider carefully before you broadcast any email. But still it is the cheapest form of communication tool. So collect you own list is the safest bet.
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