Anthea Stratigos, Co-founder and CEO of Outsell Inc. expresses her frustration about the flood of irrelevant, misdirected mail. The following is an excerpt of her recent ‘Insight’:
“Every so often, everyday life with end users yields profound insights about how parts of the media and information industry really work. The ever increasing amount of irrelevant email pouring into the inbox seems increasingly overwhelming: over the past week, at least 25 to 30 unsolicited, unwarranted, unneeded, and irrelevant messages came pouring in each day. Good enough to defy the serious spam filters and egregious garbage relevant for only a twisted few, the ‘legitimate’ email, both B2B and B2C, came through to a business email address.
Where is the clearinghouse in the sky (anybody listening at LinkedIn???) where a business user can express their needs about any number of topics and opt in to receive only the material fitting this profile from anyone offering it? Where is the universal clearinghouse to “unpermission” any and all unsolicited email? Why not a clearinghouse of the companies we want to hear from, and a place to register a desire to hear from any of these? D&B profiles practically every company in the world, so why can’t a business user go to one place and opt in? These may be pie in the sky solutions, but despite the few trusted sources we opt in to or accept, there are many more companies sending mountains of junk email no one wants.
Outsell’s research shows marketers are spending $18 billion dollars on email marketing each year. We are sure it’s a numbers game: for every one of the “irrelevants”, like a rifle shot into the dark, there are enough hits to generate a return. But the negative brand building is equally high for everyone who doesn’t want to hear from a vendor and perceives these brands’ messages as an invasion of privacy. It’s high time for new solutions that create user pull rather than this continuous push of meaningless noise.”
BIIA editorial comment: Anthea Stratigos is not alone – BIIA, as an association, is also inundated by unsolicited mail from industrial companies: from industrial solvents, paint, steel, knives, industrial lighting, leather goods etc. While the cost of e-mail addresses is low in cost, most marketers seem to be oblivious of the fact that their action may do more harm to their brand as Anthea Stratigos suggest.
Source: Outsell Insight To provide feedback click here
