Today’s Misconceptions and Assumptions About Commercial Email

“All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.” -George Bernard Shaw

I’ve made the above quote my company’s motto because from the very beginning I knew advocating the idea of targeted, unsolicited B2B email in the context of our still nascent internet goes very much against today’s conventional internet practices.  Consequently, I knew my ideas would draw fierce resistance, doubt and scorn, even condemnation.

But I think if we can understand (and therefore come to terms) with the assumptions and misconceptions underlying our current thinking on commercial email practices, it will go a long way to dispelling the negative emotions associated with this subject.  Hopefully, that will open the doors up to meaningful dialogue and progress.

It’s very hard for me to not retaliate in kind to arrogant, myopic dogmatists such as CAUCE’s Jason Shwartzman who left the following comments on my article Kill Them All! God Will Know His Own:

“No, I didn’t dodge the question. Legitimate companies don’t spam, nor do legitimate companies buy into your ignorant claptrap about it not being about consent. As to your conclusion, “No one calls a well-timed, well-targeted commercial email spam.” my only hope is that whatever customers you have who should follow such poor advice hold you personally and professionally responsible when they are sued under CANSPAM and PIPEDA, and then find a real deliverability consultant who knows the law.

In the meantime, those of us with actual experience in the industry will continue to monitor this blog, and use it for its actual purpose, for laughs. I gotta tell you pal, there are several who are watching, and smirking. You are so offbase, it is mind-boggling. You can wrap yourself up in the notion that what you say is heresy, the rest of us call it spam, as do recipients. As does the law.”

Like a fire and brimstone preacher, Shwartzman talks about “the law” and future retribution for the unrepentant as if he were a mouthpiece of God and divine law. Having once been a born-again fanatic myself years ago, I have lived this sort of mindset.  So I know well the futility of any sort of meaningful dialogue with dogmatists.  They will believe what they want to believe, no matter what you say, because they have a personal, vested interest in their beliefs.  Their beliefs and their pitiful causes make them feel powerful.  If you took that away from them, they’d crumble to dust.  So they will fight to the death to defend their beliefs.

I assure you that based on Shwartzman’s comments in this blog he is misrepresenting the letter of the CANSPAM and PIPEDA laws, the spirit of these laws, and their application thus far toward those who have broken these laws.  My article Don’t Fear CAN-SPAM or PIPEDA with Targeted Commercial Email proves this, along with what I’ll say later in this blog.  I also know from much experience that targeted, unsolicited B2B commercial email works.

I heard a very succinct yet profound phrase recently: “Force negates”.  It’s very tempting to keep retaliating in kind to people like Shwartzman who oppose my views.  But doing so just turns a topic very worthy of debate and discussion into an argument, and then no one wins.  Our retorts are personally gratifying, but we learn little and ultimately only intensify our devotion to our own points of view, tempting us downward toward dogmatism and vanity.  I think we all ‘win’ when we try to work together rather than against each other.

The following articles detail where I think we have gone wrong with commercial email since the very beginning.  They reveal our common thinking on these areas is riddled with assumptions, misconceptions and prejudice.  The articles are:

1) Permission Based Marketing Is Merely A Reaction To And The Opposite Of Intrusive Marketing

2) Permission Based Email Marketing Is Primitive

3) Spammers Use Other Businesses’ Resources Unjustly

4) Spam Is Completely Subjective

5) Responsible Commercial Emailers Don’t Do What Spammers Do

6) Unsolicited Commercial Email Is Legal But Regulated

7) Responsible, Unsolicited B2C Emailing Is Currently Impractical

Targeted, Unsolicited B2B Emailing Will Become A Major Force In Advertising