Constant Contact Constantly Contacting Me
Is there any difference between spamming someone and really just trying to get the most from your customer? Here’s why I ask.
I have a high school football blog, and I decided a weekly e-mail newsletter during the season may be a great way to drive traffic and/or be a useful communications channel to engage those followers who aren’t going to the blog every day.
So I combined advice I got from friends with e-mail newsletters, and looked to see which providers had ready-to-roll Wordpress widgets and decided Constant Contact was for me.
Now as an editor and writer for the Chief marketer network, I’m very familiar with spam laws and whatnot. But for those people who are new to the game, Constant Contact does a great job raising red flags. Like for instance, if you want to see who registered but is not confirmed, a pop up warns the user that their subscription can be canceled if they try to contact someone who has not been confirmed.
The web-based software also reminds end-users that you just can’t e-mail people who don’t want to receive communications from you.
But I guess when I clicked the terms and conditions button, I agreed to get all sorts of stuff from Constant Contact.
The sales calls and almost simultaneous e-mails I got on back-to-back days was bad enough (even though I asked the sales person to please stop calling and e-mailing me, and that I would fulfill the obligations of my subscription when I reach the end of my free trial, and those contacts did stop).
But just today I got an e-mail invitation from Constant Contact New England, with the subject line “Learn email marketing best practices.” I went to unsubscribe and found out that based on my address, I’m signed up for occasional e-mails for “New England Seminars & Presentations” and “CT Seminars & Presentations.”
I know it’s not spam, but it’s a little shifty to reach out to your customers in ways they don’t really want to interact. I’m sure there are customers who may be able to benefit from these seminars. But I am not one of them.
So I guess I’ll take advantage of Constant Contact’s “Safeunsubscribe” feature and hope this blog post doesn’t get me permanently banned from using their services.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I have my own reasons to dislike Constant Contact, but I see a bit of hypocrisy in your post.
First, you are a marketer. Marketing is about educating the consumer. Constant Contact added you to lists that announce their educational resources. They are trying to increase their “touches” to their consumer base.
Why speak of spam laws? Are you trying to get the government to cut out e-mail marketing altogether?
Every business should maintain a relationship with their customer base. As you know, it’s called retention.
Smart businesses know their number 1 job is to attract and retain customers. No matter what your business does, a sale is required to keep the doors open.
As I said, I dislike Constant Contact personally, but I have to admit that they are just trying to market their company.
The last thing marketers need is to be labeled as is “shifty!”
August 18th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Hi Michael,
I see it as a do as I say, not as I do with Constant Contact. They were telling me the best practices of e-mailing customers, then e-mailing me after I requested that I no longer receive e-mails.
I agree though that “shifty” was a little harsh. The term you used, hypocrisy, should have been used instead.
The spam laws are there to protect the consumer. And fortunately, the legitimate marketers and merchants abide by those rules. The spam rules (and the do-not-call laws) came to be because a tiny percentage of marketers and merchants were care-free.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Tim…
Continue to speak your mind and do so boldly. Your word choice was just fine. 2 other points:
1) A PART of marketing is about educating the customer — the most basic part
2) “Touching” alone is foolish and worthless
Both of the above are part of a strategy — right? Unless you educate with a clear purpose and “touch” customers you’re not driving organized BEHAVIOR.
The goal is to create customer behavior, right? If true then you’ve got to be strategic about it — “touching” when customers ASK to be touched, in ways they want to be touched (email, phone, RSS) and in a way that respectfully drives behavior.
Value to the customer. Value to the marketer.
Have you seen the recent Wired/Craigslist article? It does a great job of illustrating the push-pull relationship between being “spammy”/bludgeoning customers into submission and polite systems that put customers in control.
http://budurl.com/s6f4