Today I received a spam message from a saleperson. It was like many others that I receive, except that I immediately noticed how respectful the tone was. Then at the end of it, he tells me that I should reply to his email so that he can show his boss that his respectful spam is more effective than the other spam I get.
I know for a fact that this guy purchased my name off a list. I never contacted him or asked to receive anything about his services.
I thought to myself, "This is clever. I'm not going to fall for it, but I bet a lot of people feel guilty and write back to this guy."
From: ***** ******
To: Joshua Baer
Subject: Please answer a quick question for me.
Dear Josh,
As promised it's been a while since I contacted you and a lot has happened here at Layered Technologies. But my own respectful approach has not changed. I certainly do not want to waste your time, or annoy you with lots of cold calls.
[more about their services]
Out of respect and a desire not to spam, you will be the only recipient at your company. Help me prove to my own management that this respectful approach is what people want by shooting me a quickie email letting me know if you do or do not have projects in these areas.
Thank you in advance and have a great year,
*****
***** ******
Enterprise Sales Executive
Layered Tech
I wrote back to him with a simple reply:
Take my name, phone, and email off your list.
He wrote back to me offended, and in not so few words called me an asshole:
Josh I looked up my records to be sure I haven't over contacted you. It looks like the last time was 7/09. Since it's a very respectful note and it's been 7 months since I last made a contact attempt I wonder are you always so friendly or do I just bring out the best in you?
You have been removed from my list.
This is the first time I've ever felt like I was being reprimanded for not being polite in how I unsubscribed!
Last 5 posts by Joshua Baer
- Please take a minute to vote for email panels at #SXSW 2012 - September 1st, 2011
- Looking Toward The Next Generation of Delivery Solutions - May 13th, 2011
- Welcome Green Arrow! - April 21st, 2011
- Wake up! @SilverPop adds a new feature to "Snooze" instead of Unsubscribe - April 21st, 2011
- Naturally Curly Seeks Email Marketing Manager - March 20th, 2011
What a jerk.
I've been added to some marketing database and I get cold emails / spam a few times a month now from someone trying to drum up some business. I can usually tell right away if they even understand what we do (we're a non-profit) or if they've simply email-merged my name into a stock letter.
I often simply reply "unsubscribe"
If it looks like they've done their homework, I send them back my form letter – thanking them profusely for their offer to do pro bono work for our charity and ask them what changes they would recommend we make immediately to the donate funnel and what types of work would they be interested in helping us with? I haven't scored any free services out of the deal yet but have come close a few times. Mostly they don't reply, but no one's been brazen enough yet to respond and say that they weren't offering to help children out of the goodness of their hearts.
What a weird tactic. I sort of feel like he came into your front lawn and put a sign for a candidate you don't endorse, then knocked on your door to tell you about it in a polite tone and was miffed when you told him to take his sign out of your lawn.