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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

A SPAM by any other name...

Clickz reports that there is still a high percentage of legitimate opt-in e-mail that is blocked by various forms of filters - and goes on to say that a major percentage of this occurs due to the marketers own practices.

Although not specifically mobile - the general theme still applies.

Filtering is just another way of saying that a message is SPAM. Unfortunately not everyone defines SPAM the same way.

What is SPAM?

Well - that depends on who you are. To the marketer that is trying to interpret the letter of the law or code of practice - SPAM is considered something that is delivered to the consumer without their permission. And of course permission is a gray area all unto itself in that it depends on which country you are in and which organizations you belong to (like the MMA and DMA) as to what level of commitment you have to permission.

For the consumer on the other hand - a message can be considered SPAM if it isn't TRVR (phonetically that's Trevor in case you were wondering) And TRVR is Timely Relevant Valuable and Requested.

Even if you have secured a triple-opt-in with a photo signature in person witnessed by an independent 3rd party permission - if you send the consumer the wrong thing then they are going to call your message SPAM. Why? Because it's the closest word they have in their vocabulary.

How about an example?

To put an example with this let's take my daily travel update service. I ride the London underground and I want to know when the Piccadilly line is suffering delays. Most of the time I accept these updates willingly enough as they are completely TRVR. BUT - if I'm away on business in Spokane and I am awakened from my jet lagged slumber at 3AM by my phone alerting me that the Piccadilly line has minor delays. Now I think that message is SPAM.

The update is not timely (-T) - It's 3AM -nor relevant (-R1) - I'm in Spokane and not likely to be riding the London underground - not valuable (-V) - it's not going to improve my ability to get to work today --- but it is requested. Yes - I signed up for it. (+R2)

And if you think that a misdirected travel update is bad - what do you think I'm going to say about getting an oil change coupon for Bob's Garage at 3AM (-T) when I'm in Spokane and the fact of the matter is that I only have a push bike (-R1, -V) , I've never been to Bob's Garage (?R2).

What's up with ?R2 -- Actually I signed up to alerts and updates from trusted partners of Maxim magazine and as such I may actually have an opt-in that someone can trace back - but do I know that? - No.

What's in a name?

What's in a name? that which we call a SPAM
By any other name would cause the same grave offense;

Mobile marketing creatives must be more than just clever they have to be TRVR.



Troy

posted by Troy Norcross at 9:49 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger Joshua Kaufman said...

Isn't there some level of customer responsibility here as well? Labels are nice and all, but there's no way that Transport for London is going to take responsibility for whatever acronym you slap on them. I say if the customer is too LAZY to understand the consequences of signing up for something like email alerts, no matter how unTRVR they are, they're definitely not getting SPAMMED. Okay, enough all cap words for one day.

9:33 PM

 

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A few words about why we're here

Since consumers first started to use SMS marketers have had the idea of text message marekting or marketing sms - also known as mobile marketing. And since that time marketing sms messages have grown and changed and new technology like bluetooth marketing, marketing bluetooth style to phones in close proximity to an advertisers.

And since the e-mail spam scourge took over the media, people have worried that there will be mobile phone spam. Spam is just another way of saying that advertisers send unsolicited text message marketing, marketing sms, bluetooth marketing or any other form of mobile marketing - it's mobile phone spam. There are even guides on how to spam phone s.

Consumer Preference is about permission based marketing, permission marketing solution. If, as an advertiser you can execute permission based marketing campaigns then you can certainly find ways to benefit from mobile marketing. And permission starts with understanding the consumer marketing preference. If you can understand consumer marketing preference, then you can execute permission based marketing. And permission marketing is not mobile phone spam.

There are many mobile marketing company listings that can be found on the Internet - and most mobile marketing company websites will tell you how they focus on permission marketing. Make sure that the one you partner with does more than tell you about it on the website. Opt-in marketing starts with your traditional marketing soliciting for permission.

Yes - Mobile marketing starts with traditional marketing - print, web, radio, television - all of the old standards. Because before you can send the first message to a consumer, you must obtain their permission... and that means that you understand consumer marketing prefernce.

Please enjoy reading consumer-preference.com - and if you feel that there is a point I'm making you'd like to share - then put a link to it from your own site. And always feel free to leave comments!

Troy Norcross

 

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