A few years back at Bronto, I spent my days “closing deals” as a member of the sales team. While I certainly don’t remember every single prospect/client I spoke with, I do recall quite a few. One in particular stuck out in my mind because of their interesting name (OrangeCoat), in vogue philosophy (open source), and memorable names of the co-founders (Adam and Evan).
I first spoke with Adam and Evan in early 2006. To make a long story short, the timing was not right for them to invest time/money into Bronto. Fast forward 2 1/2 years (not a typo…I wrote years) and this email arrived in my Bronto inbox.
From: Adam Gautsch
Subject: What’s Cooking at OrangeCoat?
Creative copy. Catchy subject line. I marked it as junk. Why? While my memory is fairly good, I did not immediately recall who Adam Gautsch was nor did I recognize the company name OrangeCoat. Spam. Wait…spam is unsolicited email, right? I gave OrangeCoat permission to email me 2 years ago. That’s explicit permission, right?
CAN-SPAM would not consider this to be spam. Legally, this email is not unsolicited. Marketers could argue that permission was granted. But, Mr. CAN-SPAM and Bob Marketer do not get to make that decision. We - the consumer - determine whether or not an email in wanted, relevant, and timely. We - the end user - mark messages as spam/junk, not CAN-SPAM, certainly not the sender.
In April of this year, I wrote a blog post about Email Address Shelf Life where I argued that you should “think before you send” if the last time you emailed a subscriber was 3-6 months ago. OrangeCoat’s 30-month gap between email communications breaks that by 5-10 times. Oops.
I have to give OrangeCoat *some* credit as the preheader did tell me why I was receiving this message. Too bad I had made my decison to “junk it” before I opened the email, before I had a chance to read through the preheader.
As Mark Brownlow said best, “We don’t get permission, we borrow it.”
DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto
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Thanks for the thoughts on our email. We certainly didn’t mean to spam anyone and we agree 30 months is a long to go between contact and apologize if caused any undue heartburn. On the bright side, you got a blog post out of the whole deal ;)
My question on your graph is this, what’s worse getting an email every month (or week) from the same person or getting one once a quarter or twice a year? I’d argue that the former is worse than the later from a spammy stand point.
I guess in my entire point and the lesson I’ve learned is there is a fine line between too much and too little contact when it comes to email campaigns and we certainly crossed that line when we didn’t send a campaign for so long.
I hope we didn’t lose you as a subscriber because of this gap in time. We do plan on sending out emails on a more regular basis (we are thinking once a quarter). We find it important and helpful to let people know what we’ve been up to and that we are still alive and we are going to try to make each email as interesting and fun as we can.
Thanks again for the blog post and feel free to call 864 335 9161 or email me any time if you have any more questions or concerns. We are in business to do things the right way and want all the feedback we can get.
Adam -
First off, I’d like to thank you for not only taking the time to read the Bronto Blog, but to have the gumption to post a comment. One of my (many) motivations for writing the post was to begin the discussion. It worked! Now hoping others will weigh in…
I certainly do not believe you or anyone at OrangeCoat intended to “spam.” In fact, my blog post would argue just the opposite. Most marketers have good intentions when they send out email marketing campaigns. Unless you are a true spammer (one of the bad guys), your goals are usually to keep subscribers/customers/clients informed, to promote a product or service, and/or to educate.
I believe that the real issue is - as an email marketing community - we either don’t understand best practices or don’t think they apply specifically to us. I’ve seen some of the so-called experts (Bronto included) miss the boat at times by not following the advice we preach. Part of the reason is that the rules are constantly changing.
One thing that does not change is relevancy and expectations. Time and time again, your email marketing campaigns will be successful (reach whatever goals you’ve set) if you send relevant, timely email to people who’ve given explicit permission for you to send them mail. It’s really that simple.
To the graph….
You ask, “what’s worse getting an email every month (or week) from the same person or getting one once a quarter or twice a year?” I’ve worked with a few clients who’ve been successful by sending out a quarterly email. Very few, but some. The issue with email is that we get so much of it that it is difficult for the average person to remember email communications if they are only every 3-6 months. Also, we live in a society that doesn’t have the patience to read long articles (emails). Some would argue that this comment is even too long already!
I believe that - again - if your email is relevant, timely, permission-based and built on trust, you can send more frequently. I have co-workers who receive a *daily* email from Daily Candy - http://www.dailycandy.com/ and read every single one. Their messages are typically short and to the point. On the flip side, if I were to get a daily email from, say Nike, trying to sell me new shoes…I’d probably unsubscribe and/or change my preferences.
Finally, you certainly didn’t lose me as a subscriber. Your willingness to be very open about your intentions actually served to keep me as an active reader. I’d love to talk more about this. I’ll take your suggestion and send you and your business partner an email. We can go from there.
DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto
DJ,
Just as you wrote this I received a message from New York Magazine, with a sender name of “Fashion Alerts”. I immediately took this as spam, I hadn’t signed up for anything from them, and fashion alerts aren’t really my thing.
After looking a little deeper I noticed that I actually had signed up for a joint call to action with BlueFly and New York Magazine back in March. That was almost 6 months ago, and just like you have said, well into the questionable area. They just waited far too long to start sending emails.
Now I’m a forgiving soul (and I collect emails), so I didn’t mark it as spam, but I was tempted. I can’t imagine their deliverability is too good after emailing that stagnant list.
Take away: Don’t do a co-reg if your partner is ready to email but you aren’t. It’s nice to build a list, but you can’t build anything if you aren’t sending.