Sometimes unsolicited email is not just 'spam'. It's disingenuous, dishonest, rude and insulting. I have had some lively discussions with marketing folk about this, and I find I have a minority view on it. If you insist on direct marketing from lists you purchase and don't ask your correspondents' permission to send them information, then please don't do what this 'marketer' did:
I had so many business cards in my drawer that
I have put them all in a Rolodex efficiently.
It may have been a while since we met,
sorry I haven’t been in touch sooner.
However, I would like to invite you to the Business 2012 Event
with Richard Branson & Lord Sugar on March 18th – 20th.
It would be a great opportunity to meet again after
such a long time.
It’s one of UK’s leading business events.
See details here <link deleted>
The event will provide outstanding insights
into many areas of business and personal development.
There are exhibitors some blue chip companies and workshops.
GRAB F*R*E*E TICKETS while they last – they have had over 25,000 registrations.
This email is going out to quite a few friends so don’t delay.
I am also one of the keynote speakers – just prior to Sir Branson on Sunday.
See details here <link deleted>
It will undoubtedly recharge your batteries in many ways.
You will meet some great people and share some great strategies.
This will be a very informative and fun event including
some latest news on Social Media ,outstanding business skills from
Sir Branson and Lord Sugar and much much more.
See details here <link deleted>
OH and off course - Cherrie Blaire is also attending and be saying a few words!
DON’T MISS IT….
As if reading it through once is not bad enough, I want to break it down a bit and explain why it insults me and just makes me cross:
I had so many business cards in my drawer that I have put them all in a Rolodex efficiently.
Really? So? Maybe sharing the efficient method of putting cards in a Rolodex would be informative.
It may have been a while since we met, sorry I haven’t been in touch sooner.
We have never met, and certainly never exchanged cards.
However, I would like to invite you to the Business 2012 Event with Richard Branson & Lord Sugar on March 18th – 20th.
Really, still not interested. Unfortunately these two personalities have become the champions of British business. Both have made more money than I can ever imagine, but would I want their reputations? Branson is the figurehead of a suite of companies that are best known for the complaints they attract from their customers, and Sugar is now identified with the most despicable show on television in which bullies, charlatans, liars and back-stabbers are heroes. That's not business.
It would be a great opportunity to meet again after such a long time.
We have never met. I'm not interested in meeting you.
It’s one of UK’s leading business events.
I've never heard of it.
See details here <link deleted>
If I follow that link, it will verify my email address to you and I will get this rubbish from you daily.
The event will provide outstanding insights into many areas of business and personal development.
Really? I doubt it.
There are exhibitors some blue chip companies and workshops.
So? Who? What does this illiterate sentence mean? Anyway, workshops are places where wood is whittled. You're still not interesting me.
GRAB F*R*E*E TICKETS while they last – they have had over 25,000 registrations. This email is going out to quite a few friends so don’t delay.
Who is "they" all of a sudden? I thought it was about you and me. Now we're talking about another 25,000 people and you want to meet me 'again'? I hope your friends will enjoy it.
I am also one of the keynote speakers – just prior to Sir Branson on Sunday.
And who are you? I always thought that the form to address a knight was Sir "Given Name", not Sir "Family Name".
See details here <link deleted>
No. See above.
It will undoubtedly recharge your batteries in many ways. You will meet some great people and share some great strategies.
How?
This will be a very informative and fun event including some latest news on Social Media ,outstanding business skills from Sir Branson and Lord Sugar and much much more.
What's that comma doing there? And what does this mean? I don't understand. And you've misused Sir again.
See details here <link deleted>
No, for the same reason as above - again.
OH and off course - Cherrie Blaire is also attending and be saying a few words! DON’T MISS IT….
If Cherrie Blaire is attending, something must be off course. And who is this "Cherrie" person anyway? And you've written another set of words that neither make sense nor comprise a sentence. And why are you shouting at me?
I am assuming that the person who wrote this paid for a list from which he got my email address (an address I use for one purpose only - a well known on-line payment system - so someone has broken a privacy agreement somewhere along the line). I never printed this address on a business card and never gave this person my permission to send me email.
Having paid for this list, he surely should have invested some time in composing his message with some care and attention, at least spelling the names of personalities correctly. A lousy phishing message from Nigeria or Siberia can be entertaining and is so transparent that dismissing it from the Inbox as junk is just a morning chore. Somehow, this is so much more insidious.
All unsolicited email is spam. Send messages to your customers and suppliers and to those with whom you have had business interaction, even if you never sent them an invoice. However, when dealing with people you have never met, please don't try to convince them that you have, and please seek permission to send them a message (a goldfish bowl collecting cards for a raffle prize at a trade show doesn't count - you're collecting cards for a raffle prize, not building a mailing list).
This message had no footer with any other contact information and was signed, not by a person, but with another link to that tracked link that I have deleted throughout.
And the worst bit? The salutation of this message which I did not copy and paste was "Hi Steven". Did I mention that I have never met this person before? Faux familiarity will stiffen my back even more than shouting at me NOT TO MISS IT.
Spam, plain and simple. There. It's off my chest.