Excuse #4 For Not Doing Email Marketing: It’s just SPAM

This is the one excuse that can be legitimate.  However, that’s entirely up to the creator of the email campaign.  Many people have been turned off by email due to its abuse by unscrupulous organizations and people.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t a positive way to do it.

The problem with the term SPAM is that it’s not clearly defined for most people.  There are legal guidelines to follow for email marketing to avoid falling under the SPAM category.  These should all be strictly followed.  Some very important ones are providing a way for subscribers to unsubscribe so they don’t continue receiving the emails and including the organization’s name and physical address on every email so that subscribers know who is responsible for sending it.

However, I’m willing to bet every legitimate email campaign has been reported as SPAM by at least one subscriber that forgot they subscribed or lost interest and used the SPAM complaint rather than the unsubscribe tool.  That doesn’t mean the email is SPAM only that someone misrepresented it as such.

Obviously SPAM complaints need to be taken seriously and too many of those is a clear signal that your campaign is not being run in the best fashion.  However, don’t let the SPAM tag stop you from doing email marketing.  Let it motivate you to provide a quality communication that will be valued and rarely mistaken for SPAM.