Re: Apples to Apples Roadie?

> Roadie,

> Your whole explanation doesn't make sense.

Sure it does.

> Don't email them but direct mail them. In both instances, she is still
> using her customer's personal information to contact them. So where does
> one draw the line?

Postal mail is a medium whose cost is entirely borne by the sender. UCE and junk faxes cost the recipient more than the sender, so it's considered cost-shifted advertising. Nobody should be allowed to force the recipient to spend time or money without their prior informed consent, and that's the main reason spam and junk faxes and collect telemarketing calls and cell phone telemarketing calls are all banned.

> It's either do it or don't. None of this lesser of two evils nonsense.

You need to consider the cost issue, and why "free speech isn't free if it comes postage due".

> A one time email, thanking the client for placing orders with their
> company, and then giving her clients a heads up, to what they can expect
> from her company, is not SPAM.

Well, as an aside, "SPAM" is the trademark of Hormel company for their processed meat product. UCE (unsolicted commercial email) is spelled spam. The time for that email was with the order confirmation, not 1, 2, or 3 years later.

> It's called a company update and they are not selling anything.

Spam is not defined by whether or not it directly is selling anything. It's unsolicited. It's bulk/commercial. And it's email.

Even if I as a network engineer would not disconnect a customer for a one-time email like this, there are some who would. That's why my message said to be PREPARED for spam complaints.

> Companies,
> from Microsoft to Walmart do it all the time and have been doing it for as
> long as there has been emails and written confirmations. Even my little
> small town bank does it. That is commerce and called a business letter.

But if it's sent in UCE it's spam, and very risky.

> Politely letting the client know, that this is a ONE-TIME email and will
> receive no more correspondance about it, and then ask the client if they
> would like to receive their newsletter.

Spammers have poisoned the well of initial communications like this, since they ALL lie when they say "this is a one-time email". So that phrase no longer gets a lot of weight, and actually is built into a few filters to automatically identify the email as spam.

I wish the spammers hadn't managed to partially destroy email as a useful communication medium, but it happened and it's not my fault.

> If not do nothing. If they do then click the link.

Thats the proper way to run confirmations, but too many marketers want to do it backwards. They send emails in the guise of confirmation requests, but they say "if you do nothing, you get added to the list." The innocent recipient should have to take no action to stay off a list they never asked to be on in the first place. You have a good understanding of how to run a proper confirmation.