Regardless of our careers, we all battle the usual “perceptions” outsiders have about our jobs. Lawyers, used car salespeople…great examples of how others have preconceived notions of our jobs (and often times, not super-positive).
Marketing is no different. In business, there are few departments that fight against the “anyone can do it” mentality than marketing. After all, marketing is just putting a pretty flyer together, right? Or sending out an email. Easy stuff (tongue firmly in cheek).
But we marketing professionals don’t do ourselves any favors. I get my own fair share of marketing messages. Some good. Some bad. Some ugly. But the ones’ that really frustrate me are the ones that are boarder-line illegal (via the CAN SPAM Act).
For those of you that don’t know, CAN SPAM is an acronym for “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing.” Nothing like having your career associated with pornography to make you feel really professional, right? Hence why we marketing people tend to just refer to it as “CAN SPAM.”
Anyhoo…I’m not a lawyer, but know enough about CAN SPAM to keep my organization free from the stiff (pun-somewhat-intended) penalties. One of the best parts of CAN SPAM was the requirement to make unsubscribing from future messages super-easy.
Yet, this is where marketing earns some scorn. Shady “professionals” find ways to skate around these laws. Most recently, I received the following message (removing identifying details to protect the guilty):
“Your company is a Top 10 Services Company…” yada, yada, yada “Pay us $3,000 to ‘feature’ your company in our magazine.”
This happens a lot, in a bunch of verticals. It’s an advertising play where you pay a fee and the magazine claims you won some award and you can share it with customers.
Fine, whatever. That’s not where my frustration sits. I went to unsubscribe, and I got the following unsubscribe note:
“You will not receive any further emails about “’Top 10 Services Companies 2020.’”
Shady, shady, shady.
See what they did? They’ve allowed themselves to send me messages in 2021. They’ve allowed themselves to send me messages about “Top 20 Services companies.” Or “Top 10 Technology Companies.” By being super-specific with this note…they have tip-toed around the opt-out requirements.
This is why so many consumers and prospects hate marketing. Because it can be so shady (again, not a lawyer, but I think they may actually be breaking the CAN SPAM Act, but I digress).
In 2021, when I get this same message…what are the odds that I’ll say “oh, gosh, I’ll go ahead and become a customer?”
Look, I get it…if someone opts-out, they are likely gone for good. But that’s the game. If you pull this kind of unethical BS? I 100% promise you, you will not get a dime of my company’s money. And…I’ll let people know in the industry what you’re pulling.
Marketing, at its core…is simply about leading the proverbial horse to water. We can’t make it drink. Our job is discovery, education and problem/solution identification. We help prospects and consumers discover us…share with them the problem we solve and how it will better their lives and then make it easy for them to make a decision (wait! What about "conversions?!?" That's a whole other blog post. Stay tuned!).
The customer's decision, yes or no, should not then find us implementing deceptive practices (like fuzzy “opt-outs”) that circumvents that decision. It’s unethical, bad business, potentially illegal and completely unprofessional.
Marketing and sales are the lifeblood of business…if we poison the well with bad practices, we may hit some short term KPIs, but our long-term outlook is terminal.
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