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Tom's take on "Targeted e-mail" vs. opt-in 1 October 2000 The following message was posted to a mailing list about E-mail marketing on 14 September 2000 (reposted with permission): Date: Thu, 14-Sep-2000 13:40:37 GMT From: webmaster@e-dormlife.com Subject: Response: Definition of "opt-in" (and spamming) I'm new to the world of email marketing, so if my response seems to be ignorant, please feel free to slap me around! I've reviewed your posting and included the parts I would like to address. When I hear "targeted", I define it the exact same way that you have: "people who look for addresses of people who might be interested in their products..." -- but I'm not quite sure how you consider this to be spam. To me, "targeted" is the compilation of individuals who share a common interest or characteristic. Spam is simply reckless mass/bulk mailings. But who defines "targeted": the list broker/owner or the list member (who, according to you, must opt-in)? Personally, the small business owner (i.e., ME!) cannot afford such high rates for opt-in list brokers. Therefore, are small business owners to be "punished" by anti-spam advocates because we attempted to contact sales leads through our own "target-defined" member list? Please advise. Do you consider "opt-out" lists to be spam? Personally, I do not because opt-out lists give the recipient an option to discontinue future mailings. For example, would you consider a "college student" member list to be spam if the website's products and services were oriented strictly towards college students? I look forward to hearing from you! Jim Here's my response (15 September 2000). To: EmailMarketing@topica.com From: Tom Geller Subject: Response: Definition of "opt-in" (and spamming) Jim (PartyGuy@e-dormlife.com) raises some good questions. I'd like to give my opinion point by point. (1) When I hear "targeted", I define it the exact same way that you have: "people who look for addresses of people who might be interested in their products..." So far, so good. but I'm not quite sure how you consider this to be spam. To me, "targeted" is the compilation of individuals who share a common interest or characteristic. Spam is simply reckless mass/bulk mailings. Spam is commonly defined in one of two ways: Unsolicited Bulk E-mail ("UBE") Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ("UCE") I think most people would agree with the first definition (UBE), that is, mail sent in bulk to people who didn't ask for it. ("UCE" has gained prominence because of U.S. law: Our government is allowed to regulate commercial speech much more than non-commercial speech.) Then you ask the tough question: But who defines "targeted" Ah, there you have it: There *is no* accepted definition of "targeted". If you read the newsgroup rec.autos.ford, can I send you ads for car parts? If I see you in an America Online sex chat room, can I send you Viagra ads? If you take part in this mailing list, can I send you those "10 million e-mail addresses for $69!" ads? (After all, you've shown an active interest in EmailMarketing... you can't get more targeted than that!) Going even further: Let's pretend that we believe 95+ percent of the people in rec.auto.ford to be men over 45. Can I send Viagra ads to addresses scraped from that newsgroup? Again, that's an awfully targeted list. When the recipient doesn't have to pay to receive ads, misdirected mail (such as paper mail) is merely an annoyance. With e-mail -- a recipient-pays medium -- it's theft. So you have to be certain that your lists are targeted to 100 percent accuracy. And the only way to do that is for the recipient to say, "Yes, I want your mail." Hence, opt-in. the list broker/owner or the list member (who, according to you, must opt-in)? Personally, the small business owner (i.e., ME!) cannot afford such high rates for opt-in list brokers. Therefore, are small business owners to be "punished" by anti-spam advocates because we attempted to contact sales leads through our own "target-defined" member list? Please advise. Actually, the opposite is true! Small business owners have more power now than they ever have to build opt-in mailing lists: You or I have as much chance as Coca-Cola to find people who are interested in what we're doing, *without* renting opt-in mailing lists. It's better to have a list full of people who say, "I want e-mail from *you*", rather than "I want e-mail about [type of product you're promoting]". That's obvious: They're predisposed to read your messages and act on them. Rented lists are useful, but are expensive and don't have as good a rate of return as your home-grown opt-in lists. Therefore, your first steps should be: (a) to create reasons for people to join your mailing list, and (b) to make it brainlessly easy to do so. This is where most small businesspeople trip up: They don't know how to make their lists attractive to their potential customers. Such promotion is still an immature field, but it's clear that it can be done. (I know of a one-person business with a 100-percent opt-in list of over 100,000 people! And they *respond* -- which is really what you want, right?) (2) Do you consider "opt-out" lists to be spam? Personally, I do not because opt-out lists give the recipient an option to discontinue future mailings. For example, would you consider a "college student" member list to be spam if the website's products and services were oriented strictly towards college students? Again, if there were no costs to recipients, opt-out lists would be tolerable. But there is cost, so even one message is theft. Besides, we go back to our earlier question: Who defines what "targeted" is? But the bigger issue is scale: Read http://www.claws-and-paws.com/spam/spam_math.shtml. To summarize: Let's pretend there are 100,000 legitimate businesses on the 'net who consider you part of their "targeted" list. (With hundreds of millions of businesses out there, I think that's a fair assumption.) You'll receive *240* opt-out requests per day, and opting out of them would take *hours* -- assuming they're honest about honoring opt-out requests. There are other problems. For example, I run about a dozen domains, and have used literally hundreds of e-mail addresses over the past five years. You, as the marketer, have no way of knowing that tom@tgeller.com is the same person as info@bandwidthpr.com is the same as webmaster@gellercommunications.com is the same as topica@tgeller.com. All are "targeted" P.R. professionals, right? But I'm the one who has to opt out four times -- or more. You can imagine how I'd feel about your company after that. In the end, you have to keep your eyes on the goal. You don't just want to reach lots of people: You want to insipire customers. "Targeted" and opt-out lists do the opposite. Sorry to write so long. Best, --Tom Geller President, Geller Communications, Inc. This page was last updated on Monday, February 09, 2004 at 2:22pm CST. All contents copyright 2005 by Tom Geller.