Rachel C. Weingarten muses on Marketing, Manners and Modness

We all know spam when we see it, right? E-mails with offers for cut rate Viagra, or notes from long lost relatives from Nigeria looking for a little bit of sympathy and access to our personal data and bank accounts.  Less obvious though are the gray area spammers.  I’m definitely guilty of sending out e-mail blasts to family, friends and colleagues with updates and announcements, but I try to be judicious about how often I send, who I include on my list and the frequency of contact.

Spam: The Next Generation

That said, there’s a new generation of spammers who might not realize that they’re spamming, which doesn’t make the practice any less annoying.

Friends with start-up businesses or new entrepreneurs eager to include as many e-mail addresses as possible and unaware of the regulations, who then subscribe me to their services without prior knowledge or consent.  Small companies or publicists who have culled my contact information from a group list and then add me to their company’s master list for frequent and completely off-target pitches.

The worst offenders are companies who share but don’t update client lists with their new and newer sales teams who then automatically add past clients to their e-mail lists.  This isn’t simply annoying though, on some levels this activity is illegal.

While I’m not one to out anyone or any company publicly, after about seven years of ongoing and evolving spam from a company I once had the misfortune of doing business with, I’m ready to spill.

The Long Sordid Story

Years back I was working on the launch of a new TV talk show.  Part of the launch included massive sweepstakes with branded merchandise and gifts for the audience and those watching at home.  In what seems like the next logical move, I broke down the process and ordered several thousand pieces of merchandise from one company.  Though I’d given the company a long lead time none of the products arrived by our first deadline.

I spent weeks of back and forth on the phone with my rep explaining that this deal could make or break my relationship with not only the show, but the studio that produced it.  The rep promised results.  He swore up and down we’d have our order in time.  Only we didn’t.  And there was more back and forth.

I seem to recall rush fees.  When the products finally arrived, several months late and painfully close to launch time, the quality of the products and work was so poor as to make it embarrassing.  My client was livid.  More calls to the company who promised to fix the errors in the logos and replace the products with superior ones.

I’ll spare you the rest, but suffice it to say that even though the problems were finally rectified on some level, my company was out tens of thousands of dollars, the products were cut rate, we’d lost the good will of the studio and the client was disinclined to do future business with us.

Moving Forward

The best course of action seemed to simply put the episode behind us, forget about the company that had nearly ruined our reputation and simply never do business with them again, right? Only they didn’t seem to go away and e-mail specials from them showed up on a regular basis.

I unsubscribed. They kept coming.  I unsubscribed again. They still kept coming.  I called my former rep to ask him to take me off his contact list and he apologized profusely and insisted he would.

The e-mails stopped for a while and started up a few months later.  So did pitch phone calls from new salespeople.  Apparently my former rep had left the company and passed on his contact list.  I wrote asking them to stop contacting me.  At every phone call I asked to be taken off their list.  The e-mails and phone calls would stop for a while until the next new salesperson inherited the list from the last.

Years Later

It is about seven years now that this company has somehow seen fit to pass my e-mail address and phone number along from salesperson to salesperson.  I regularly receive updates from them, despite the fact that I have physically unsubscribed from their services, written to the providers and directly written to the person contacting me.

As with much else in my business life, I’ve turned this into an object lesson and have come up with some questions to ask yourself before adding someone to your e-mail list:

Spam Checklist:

1. Do I know this person personally or professionally and if I contact them will my information be welcome? Don’t betray a friendship by adding someone to your corporate list.  It’s awkward, unprofessional and possibly illegal.
2. How did I gain access to this person’s contact information? Chances are if you got it in a sneaky manner, they’re not going to be thrilled to hear from you
3. What was their last experience with my company like?  You have but to read about my experiences to know that I will never do business with this company again.  The constant e-mail only keeps them fresh in my mind in the worst possible way.
4. What are the spam laws universally, in my state and in my industry? It’s smart to brush up on the rules.

And finally:

5. How fresh is my contact list? Prune your contact list regularly and if all else fails, start from scratch keeping several lists for friends, colleagues and clients.

None of us intend to spam and most friends, contacts and colleagues are forgiving of a few unexpected e-mails, but aggressive and ongoing spamming can ruin your reputation and credibility.

And for the record? As bad as my experience with this company is/was I’ve decided not to out them, since it goes against my own business principles to publicly vilify any company, despite their lazy and unprofessional methods of communication.  Besides, I’m a big believer in karma and have no doubt that their icky business practices will come back to haunt them without my help in the matter.

At some point soon, I’ll offer a primer on spamming laws, rules and regulations and some resources to consider

Rachel, who hopes never to hear from this company again, but anticipates an e-mail any minute now