Junk Mail Is Not Marketing
Have you ever had one of those irritating phone calls, you know the one where they greet you buy your first name as if they’ve known you since childhood and just want to introduce you to their company and oh, by the way, can we sell you …..!
I was on one of my regular trips to China a couple of days ago. I like to take the ferry rather than the train as its usually a relaxing way to travel but not long after I boarded my phone rang. Hello Dave, this is Mary from bla bla bla in Japan, how are you today … I’m not trying to sell you anything (yeh! like right!) but I just wanted to introduce you to my company (why?) … that was about as far as she got but a couple of minutes later she rang again! The ferry ride is an hour and there were five or six calls but the rest I switched to silent and ignored.
I got to my destination and the phone rang again. This time the same woman was asking for someone else! Now this is just desperation.
What made her think the more she called the better her chances of her selling me something? I was not looking for what she was selling and would definitely not spend my hard earned cash on something from someone calling out the blue like that!
On the return journey I was thinking about the days calls and it hit me that junk phone calls are no different from junk email. There is even less chance that I would buy somethng from someone sending me unsolicited email than had that person irritated me with unwanted phone calls!
But lets look at this logically. Why are spam filters such big business? Why do companies invest in development spam filters, why do agencies go to such lengths to close down spammers? Its simple. Stopping spammers is big business and to be big business demands a big customer base … in other words that are masses of people willing to spend hard earned cash to stop other people sending them unsolicited email!
Why do people continue to think that sending out hundreds of junk emails will generate business for them? All spammers do is driver email account holders into the arms of those selling spam filters!
If the spammers of the world want to generate business there is only one way, attract customers, not repel them.
