Keith Shirley | 
January 20, 2009| 
Why do some people freak out when they receive spam? There seems to be a weird kind of joy of the hunt within Irish web “guru” circles when they receive a spam mail.
As an Irish business, God forbid that you should send a spam mail to any of the well known bloggers or twitter users. It might even be that the mail you send is relatively innocent but it probably won’t matter. You’ll be tarred and feathered in public from people on high horses.
I’m not saying it’s right to spam. The Irish government agrees that it’s an increasing problem and a recent news report talks about how the fines can now hit 250,000 Euro. The trouble with the new laws is that I doubt they will be enforced. What we need to do is help everyone understand what they can do to avoid sending spam:
- Get peoples permission to send them mail. Do it at the same time they sign up for an account if you can.
- If people sign up over the web – makes sure it’s really them by getting the software to send an automated mail asking for confirmation – This is called double opt-in
- Make it easy for them to be taken off your mailing lists. Make sure that they stay off
- If your customer database has not got email addresses or your customers permission to send them mails then phone them and ask them. Yes it’ll take ages BUT a real call will give you the opportunity to keep the communication channel open with your customers. Don’t be afraid to speak with your customers.
- Just because you don’t receive much spam does not mean that they don’t. Are you really going to be sending them information that is useful to them? Even with their permission – a boring sales pitch will just get deleted. Ask yourself why you want to send mails.
Update via Mulleynet - Denise Cox’s Blog has some great details on the new regulations.
Update2: They say when you look back on things you always have 20/20 vision. I’d like to point out that my link to Damiens blog was not meant to point the finger at him. In that particular post I agree with him – The PR company should have just apologised, removed him from their list and do better next time. When they try to convey the attitude that you should be greatful for being spammed they are damaging their own customers image.
I get 1000’s of spam messages a day and they do annoy me but the piles of junk mail that come through my letterbox at home annoy me more. Dan Sullivan has an interesting post on his blog about how people react differently depending on how they receive their spam.
Please make sure to read the comments for this post – there are a number of interesting answers.
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January 23rd, 2009 at 09:13
hi keith.
thanks for for the link.
you make very good points.
i advice customers to go for best practice. “best practice” is following legislation + one step above and beyond. just because you CAN send legally does not mean you SHOULD.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:52
Hi Denise
That’s a great expression – just because you can do something legally does not mean you should.
A handy one for all aspects of life I guess.
January 23rd, 2009 at 22:47
[...] thought the answer to the question posted by Keith Shirley on his blog was quite obvious. I don’t know anyone that enjoys receiving spam. How many [...]
January 24th, 2009 at 01:08
Just because you didn’t ask for it or sign up for it doesn’t of itself make it spam. Some (note I say some not all) of the people who freaked about this supposed spam had no problem when they received a communication in exactly the same format from a different source.
http://dansullivan.blogspot.com/2009/01/green-party-spam-my-friends-good.html
There is a double standard at work here.
January 24th, 2009 at 09:03
@Tom I agree – no one likes it. I’m just wondering why people get so worked up about it. I don’t know anyone that puts in the same effort when it comes to the rubbish that’s shoved through their front doors everyday.
I feel that’s much more of an invasion of my personal space and environmentally a terrible waste.
So my question to everyone is maybe – If you get an advert through your door for Satellite TV and one via email – which annoys you more and why.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:15
Personally I get too many of these emails not to boil over. As my day job involves helping other companies market their businesses through the web, I know there are many other non-intrusive ways of communicating their message with potential clients.
When I say some lazy bugger mass mailing thousands of users with no regard for the user at the other end, I feel it’s a complete lack of respect. So that makes me crazy.
It usually takes a few emails before I lose it. It’s not as if it happens on the first one. As in Mulley’s case, someone went one step too far and he reacted.
For example, not being removed from the mailing list after numerous requests, a smart comment in return when you ask them to remove you etc etc.
The lazy user that has sent all those silly emails doesn’t understand the power of the web and in Mulley’s case again, how much of a negative impact his stupidity could have brought on their company, because Mulley has blogged about it.
Anyway, I’m going off on one now!
But hopefully you can see that it really gets to us bloggers/online marketers who get spammed, it’s not just blogging about it for the sake of it.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:19
Sorry after my little rant, I never responded to your question.
I get annoyed more at email spam.
Now let’s put it in context. The spam that comes through your door is generally the type of spam that your spam filter picks up and automatically ends up in your junk folder.
SO you know when you open your door, you see a pile of junk mail, you pick it up and put it in the recycle bin without having to once look at anything in it. That spam is so easy to pick up.
Then there is the other spam, spam from supposedly reputable bodies, that you’d take the time to look at. When you do, you can see it’s a blanket bombed email, now that’s the type of spam that annoys me.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:26
@Tom You make a very good point about the spam filters picking up the easy stuff.
I guess I’m lucky that not too many real looking but spam mails filter through. I can see how the effort involved to review them would chip away at ones patience.
So thanks – now I have a better understanding as to why people freak out. My reference to Damien’s post came after I wrote my post – and was a bad decision. It made it look like I was talking about him/that post when I was really just asking in general.
March 26th, 2009 at 03:28
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