So I got an email today from a very cool company I know about. They’re doing very interesting things with caching in the web applications space, and I generally approve highly of them.
But this email was vexing to me. It was unsolicited commercial email. Otherwise known as spam. Boo. Hiss! Since I think they’re doing neat things, AND since I’ve already have a relationship with the company, I would doubly surprised to get this email. The email was pretty targetted at what we do, and was addressed directly to me. All very easy to do these days with databases, so I don’t hold illusions that this was crafted by hand for me. Hardly.
But I am surprised that they didn’t cross-reference their existing customer/contact list against this to avoid this situation.
My first email to them was along the lines of “This is spam. I’ve been talking to you already. Why are you spamming me?” The reply I got back was disappointing:
Our intention is not to spam, but to inform people of our products, new features and functions, webinars, etc. and offer a free trial to anyone who may want to test. I will remove you from our mailing list if you prefer not to receive this kind of information. We always include an unsubscribe link in our emails for people to stop receiving them if they
like.
Our apologies to you.
I never signed up for your mailing list. I never view webinars. And generally, I add companies that spam me to a blacklist. I don’t like it!
But this company does really neat things. They’ve got cool technology, and offer tools for free to the open source community to help manage caches. So, I wrote back:
It’s too little too late to say “we’ve got an unsubscribe link at the bottom.” I sign up for things I’m interested in.
To be clear, I /like/ $COMPANY. I think you, as a company, are doing neat stuff.
But I /also/ think this kind of approach is really really lame. I know it’s the standard way that these things are done. That cold calling and soliciting people who might be interested (or not) to get business.
But for all us technologists, it’s just annoying trash. This isn’t how to make yourselves look like rock stars to us. Presenting meaningful talks at conferences is. Offering cool tools that we can use to better our websites is. And you’re evening doing these things!
And let me be clear, I’m not pissed off at you, $PERSON. I just really hate this style of advocacy, and I think it doesn’t serve you well.
And I sent that. To any of your marketing types to read this, this is my take away for you:
- Don’t spam your existing contacts. It’s off-putting. We don’t like it, and
- Do more interesting things than spam. Show yourselves to be world-class through your deeds.
-Gabriel
