“There is a legitimate difference between online marketing and Spam. Some people say the difference is Relevancy. Okay, this is close; but there needs to be another element involved: Value. Mmm – organically grown and very delicious Value.” Via Marke…

We are all constantly “spammed” in one way or another – when you open up the magazine, when you drive down the interstate passing thousands of billboards, when you watch tv, when you go and read someones blog and it is filled with ads.

This is all marketing, advertising and in my opinion you could even call it spam. The technical definition of spam is the sending of “unsolicitated bulk email messages” (check out wiki or spamhaus.org).

I would hazard a guess that the part of the definition that gets people going is “unsolicited”. In which case, all advertising is pretty much unsolicited.

Any marketer or advertiser is going to attempt to target its demographic. It is only with the ease of electronic systems that one can truly “spam” in an economically viable manner due to the low overhead costs.

There is million’s of dollars spent on figuring out who to send and target with (unsolicited) advertising. But, by virtue of participating in society and being an active consumer we are almost giving an unspoken approval of advertising – unless we as a society decide that we want to garner information about what is available to consume in a way that does not utilize advertising.

The blog world is, yes semi-private, but the whole viability of the blogosphere, rests in the mass amounts of unsolicited ads on everyones blogs. We have accepted that to participate in the blog world we are willing to advertise, self-promote, cross-promote and in general share. It is this element that makes it strong.

You could look at the work that is done by AbrahamHarrison as part of that effort to share, across the network, opportunities and products that may interest some of the demographic. It doesn’t work for AH to target people that are not interested in there product – this is what market research is about.

Then again we could all stop consuming and then there would be no point in advertising!!

Sender: Choose Your Free Resort Stay
Subject: Claim Your our FREE Resort Stay in Vegas, Cancun, or Napa!

Sender: Hatfield, Jared
Subject: Your Loan Application is Waiting

Sender: Sharell
Subject: Sorry, man. I have to go.

Sender: loaf
Subject: nuclear

Sender: James
Subject: roughness (with attachment)

Sender: Snell S. Evina
Subject: creamy

I opened up the top one. It has an offer for this site:
http://www.experiencesummerbayresorts.com/index_c1024.php

Now, yes, I consider that to be spam. But maybe there are several levels of spam. Mind you, this is very unscientific.

Maybe there’s a level that’s semi-legit. It involves an actual offer that’s real – with stings attached. Like you go on a vacaton but have to sit through a 90 minute sales pitch on buying a time share. That could lead to bad PR…something a resort business may not want to have to deal with.

Then there’s stuff like the penis enlargement. Pills, machines, etc. I read an article once in Men’s Health that all of these things are bogus. That’s fraudulent spam.

Them there’s ‘hidden spam’. Sort of designed to get you to open it and then they try to sell you a sex toy or whatever. Sort of like your mom getting an email from “loaf with the subject “nuclear”.

Regarding permission? I’d say that more relates to bulk vs. to an individual. I often think that say, sending an email to a blogger is legit. Someone is putting their info in the public domain in order to be contacted.

But you almost have to go on a case by case basis.

Yes, some men have penuses and some need mortgages, but unless I opt in for messages about either, the marketer is spamming me, and I don’t like it.

At our marketing firm, we only use distribution lists in which the people on them have indicated an interest in receiving information. Of course, those people may have not read the privacy policy or remember that they opted-in, but we have no way of knowing that. In any event, if anyone wants to be removed from any list that we use or purchase for our clients use, opting out is always an easy process.

Sender Subject
Choose Your Free Resort Stay Claim Your our FREE Resort Stay in Vegas, Cancun, or Napa!

How off are they?

I am not a defender of spam at all, but you are a man, you are in your 40s, and you are a professional.

You could not be better targeted than for a loan and for male enhancement, Viagra, and for the rest. Of course, I am not saying this about you, Jonathan, you big stud, but I mean any man who is outside the 18-34 age demographic.

What do you get the man who has everything? A penis that is not merely harder but bigger, too.

So, in this case, I don’t know if that is the right answer.

If you are getting emails for male enhancement and for loads, someone is doing a great job of targeting marketing. If they’re sending those same emails to me 70-year-old mum, someone is really and truly off.

I venture to add, that my mom gets all of those emails, too, so this is all a bad example.

Next thing, what is permission, anyway? If you can find the email address of a blogger, are you free to send them a pitch?

If the pitch is topical and potentially relevant? Isn’t making the email available in the first place, be it on the blog, in the about page, or in Whois, a sort of permission?

I am very interested in the continuation of this conversation.

I haven’t applied for a loan and I’ve yet to compare my penis with another male’s. So I won’t be popping that pill or applying that appliance.

Interesting that you don’t count the mortgage loan and the bigger-penis-now people as spammers.

Legitimate marketers use, as Seth Godin says, ‘permission’ when sending an email.

As far a blog posts, I’d say if it’s topical, it’s free game, because a blog maybe semi-private property, but it’s a public arena.

To your last point, a non-spamming marketer who nevertheless has a legitimate list but sends out things that are meaningless to the community adding nothing aren’t spammers…but they are indeed generally worthless. Just like the folks that tell me my loan is approved or they can make my penis a lot bigger.

When I say ‘spammers’ I mean, people who:

1. Send out massive amounts of unsolicited email.
2. Dig blogs and use ctl + C to paste canned comments in hundreds of blogs.
3. Add nothing to the blogosphere.
4. Are generally worthless.

I guess the term gets thrown around lot – and perhaps I’m throwing it about a little too liberally.

aB.

When you say “there’s a legitimate difference between online marketing and spam” are you referring to email marketing?