Email marketers in trouble? Spam is now “unwanted”

The definition of spam email has changed in the minds of consumers from the actual “unsolicited commercial message” to anything they do not want. This includes messages from known senders whose messages aren’t relative to them. The study done by Q Interactive and Marketing Sherpa leads one to believe that email marketing is facing a difficult challenge. Some of the interesting points are:

• Over half of survey participants - 56 percent - consider marketing messages from known senders to be spam if the message is “just not interesting to me.”
• 50 percent of respondents consider “too frequent emails from companies I know” to be spam.
• 31 percent cite “emails that were once useful but aren’t relevant anymore.”

 Email marketers must come together and create a tighter definition of Spam and redefine the Can-Spam laws so that consumers can clearly see what is and what isn’t Spam. This might be harder than it should be, just like the explanation of behavioral targeting practices with display advertising. Overall, online advertising needs to push for best practice standards that consumers can understand and marketers can be held to.

Hoodia affiliate hit with $2.6 million Can-Spam penalty

The Can-Spam law is rearing its ugly head for a Hoodia affiliate out of Las Vegas, Sili Neutraceuticals. The complaint filed against them states that they were using misleading subject lines and falsely advertised the product, stating that Hoodia and growth hormone could make an individual lose 40 lbs a month. That seems to be a lot of weight to lose in a single month, unless the person is so obese to begin with. They are being hit with $2.6 million fine by the FTC.

Anyways, this will be the largest fine the FTC collects over Can-Spam as the HiTech Marketing fine was larger on paper, but they were only able to pay $485,000. It looks like the FTC is going to be more active regulating the Can-Spam law, but I would recommend they rewrite it first, as there is a lot of grey area and everyone seems to have a different view on what you can and can’t do. Obviously there are best practices that most corporate marketers take, but the affiliate/co-reg marketers like HiTech and Sili Neutraceuticals use mass email as their marketing medium and there is not a lot of regulation on this.

Hopefully we will see more spammers fined, but ultimately, I would like to see the Can-Spam law more solidified and easier to understand.

Datran reports email is the best performing online media

No kidding. Email marketing to a list of people that have submitted their information should be the most effective advertising media hands down. The interesting number would be to see what media was the most efficient at generating those leads. Once they submit their information, they have already taken a step down the conversion funnel, therefore one step closer to a conversion.

A similar report from the DMA said that 67% of respondents said that email helped increase conversions through other channels. Once again, no kidding. Email has become the re-marketing tool of choice. Sending door busters and mail to every lead just is not cost efficient anymore. I am a little surprised that these are the numbers that are making headlines from these reports, its kind of common sense if you think about it.

Google reinstates IncrediMail….boo!

I was intrigued by reading that Google banned someone from the adSense program and then reinstated them. Google reinstated Incredimail back into the adsense program today after they banned them January 9th. This caused a large deficit to the revenue seen by IncrediMail, but after checking out IncrediMail, it’s the absolute last thing that I would want to use as an email provider.  I know it’s only my view, but all the silly emoticons, backgrounds, animations, and notifiers they offer is the last thing that I want for email. I use email to get updates from stores I like, communicate with friends and co-workers, and check the status of orders.

The last thing I need is my message to fold up into a paper plane and fly away as it is sent or deleted. Maybe this is geared for kids, but I don’t see it staying around for long. Maybe the Google banning caused a big enough dent in revenue for two weeks they will be unable to maintain? But maybe I am wrong and this program will take over the consumer email?