SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM

I'm sure that at some point, we've all received a SPAM email. According to the BBC, Microsoft reports that more than 97% of all e-mails sent over the net are unwanted.

Here's an example of how we've received SPAM:

I have worked previously with a very successful social enterprise, they've been involved in Conferences we've run in the past. This organisation is run by fantastic people and I have an especially great relationship with one of their Directors.

I am not 'on their list' (i.e. I don't receive their Newsletters etc.) but the Director whom I get on with keeps me in the loop continually with development and opportunities personally.

Anyway, I recently received an email from this company but not from my contact. It was a 'Gentle Reminder' of something. Good idea as I am not the most organised individual.

RANT:

The trouble with this 'Gentle Reminder' is that I wasn't the only individual on the list. The person who had sent it to me had also included at least 40 other email addresses in the 'To:' box and about the same amount in the 'cc:' box. As you are probably aware, this ensured that I saw all the email addresses of all those sent the email also. Read this blog by Jaimie at iNETengineers. It outlines the dangers of doing this.

As a result of this, I have for the past week or so received emails from people and companies I don't know telling me about products and services I don't at this point in time need. Examples are: a new Hair Salon that's opening, promotion on a beef jerky product, an Arts & Crafts Fair.

What's made it even worse is that someone else who received one of the emails has replied to the sender, addressing them by name and promoting their service but hitting the 'Reply All' button, so I've received an email conversation between two people, involving at least eighty others, both promoting their services to all, but trying to 'disguise' it by talking as if they are the only two getting the email!

Obviously a terrible way to market anything but an even worse attempt at communication from the source of all this SPAM: The original 'Gentle Reminder'.

So, what did I do? I got straight on the 'phone and informed my contact what one of their colleagues was doing because I knew that my contact would have been horrified this was happening.

Was I correct? Yes. A massive embarrassed apology followed (I wasn't bothered about an apology, I just knew this wasn't how they did things and if it was my company, I'd want to know) with immediate action their end.

What's the point of this Rant? Well, simply to outline that SPAM is the worst form of Interruption Marketing there is. It's lazy, and those that do it think it's a great way of getting in front of loads of companies for free.

It's not.

What they don't understand is that it costs them - Big time. It costs them in when the email lands, as most people just hit delete immediately. It costs them as their details are probably tagged as SPAM so future emails don't even get through (i.e. a waste of time doing it again) and more importantly is costs them at the time when the recipient might just at some point in the future have a need for the company sending the email and they won't know about it because they've either blacklisted the sender or just see them as a pain in the ar$e and delete upon receipt.

Another post will follow soon outlining what we do at Hillrich to avoid sending out SPAM and it works for us.

My advice is seek out a reputable Web Agency and let them introduce you to a system that does it for you (once you've permission to so do from the recipient) as if you've read Jaimie's blog, you'll know that cc'ing everyone is a sure fire way to get blacklisted.

Judging a Book by the Cover

I recently received a call from a highly respected PR Agency. Now, this company is good, has a lot of high profile clients and I've worked with them in the past when I started a HR magazine many moons ago. At the time of the mag, I met with the Agency's owner and that person is a highly knowledgeable, experienced and respected individual - nice to boot and someone whom I enjoyed speaking/meeting/working with.

The reason for their call to me (it wasn't the owner that called) was to talk about one of their clients who is starting to 'do the rounds' on the speaking circuit at present. They wanted to know if I was interested in this speaker taking part in any forthcoming events I had.

Again, I've met the speaker in question previously. Again, heavily experienced, connected, knowledgeable etc. etc. and enjoying great success in their business. Importantly also (to me) they're a good person!

Anyway, after a brief conversation I requested a 'Biog' of the speaker so I could refer back to it should any opportunities present themselves. This came through within a couple of minutes after the call had ended.

'Nice one, prompt response', I thought.

I opened the Biog and it told me all about 'Speaker': qualifications, experience, successes. Basically what 'Speaker' has done and is doing now.

Here comes the Rant:

Not once did the Biog give me specific details of what Speaker's specialist subjects were, what his specific audience was and where he'd spoken before.

i.e. in Sales/Marketing speak, it didn't state 'WIIFM' (What's In It For Me), where Speaker's expertise was relevant to me, what the benefits of booking Speaker would be for me and my event(s) and it didn't give me any testimonials - e.g. where spoken before and what success/results this had brought.

Also (and this is a big one for me) there was no image of speaker attached. Why is this big? Well, I always harp on about people buying people and in my opinion; an image of Speaker along with a full Sales Pitch on Speaker would help me buy into Speaker more, as I can see the person who is going to WOW my Conference. I always prefer to see a customer or supplier face-to-face wherever I can, although I understand this isn't always possible.

All I received was a Word document with a couple of paragraphs and even worse, no call to action.

Bad Selling and Bad Marketing. Period.

The biog just smacked to me as an afterthought. What I know though is that Speaker would be horrified if he knew that this type of tat was going about with his name, literally all over it!

What's my point? Well, let's say I didn't already know Speaker, my perception of him/her would be the same as my perception of the 'Marketing Literature' I received about him/her. i.e. I wouldn't have the slightest inclination to book Speaker for any Conference I run in the future.

The 'literature' would not have created any need in me to find out more (i.e. take action) about him (costs, availability, interest) and I would most likely (see, definitely) think that, 'he can't be that good if this is the best they can do to promote him.'

The point is, bad sales and marketing is even worse than no sales and marketing. In business, like in life and sometimes wrongly, first impressions count and people DO judge books by their covers.

This Speaker's cover was tatty, dog eared and something you'd find in the bargain bin at a local Bring-and-Buy Sale.

The real shame is that the read of this particular book is a compelling journey of successful, self driven passion for the cause and if the cover doesn't get sorted, not many people will be bothered to open the page and read.