Seth Godin studies two email marketing campaigns. One that obtained his permission before sending emails and another that didn’t. Guess which one works.
This is a subject close to my heart. A loophole in the Australian Spam Act allows spamming if the sender has “inferred consent” which can be anything from giving your business card out at a network function to having an email address on your website.
When I wrote about this on Smartcompany last year I was criticised by one reader and yesterday I started receiving emails from an office fit out company. This goes to show some marketers and business owners don’t get it.
People are swamped with email, they don’t want more unless it provides value. It’s highly unlikely an email they didn’t ask for will have any value at all.
So don’t spam your client base. They don’t like it and it will hurt your business.