Just when I think the majority of old-school direct marketers finally for the most part understand that e-mail is not simply electronic direct mail, a prominent one pulls a boneheaded move proving me wrong.
The latest numbskull e-mail campaign comes from Columbia House for its DVD club. The continuity marketer sent an e-mail calling “former members” back to its DVD club to one of my addresses.
Not only am I not a former member, the e-mail went to a dummy account I set up in my son’s name to sign up for messages from sources I think are suspect. Clearly, one of those suspect sources put the address up for rent.
[MySon’sName]@yahoo.com has never been used in a single e-commerce transaction. So not only did Columbia House send a dishonest reactivation offer to a non-permission-based list, it rented names from a sleazeball. Which sleazeball is anyone’s guess.
As a result, a large percentage of the recipients of this campaign have most certainly hit the “report spam” button, helping Columbia House gain a reputation with the big Internet service providers as a spammer.
Question for Columbia House’s marketing department: Have you guys read even a single trade article about e-mail marketing in the last few years? The stupidity of renting e-mail lists and sending messages to them with your own brand in the subject line
Network
