When I first read Scott Geld's article Autoresponder Magic, my first reaction was one of frustration. I sometimes despair a little when I see so many people clinging to the rotting corpse of email marketing. Then several literary analogies came to mind,the most predominant one being Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus.
I almost used that one for this article, but I decided against it because I felt it was too obscure. I suspect most people have not read much existentialist fiction. Most of it is pretty depressing. But for someone who was an outsider in high school in the mid-Sixties, it was appropriate.
Then my daughter brought me an ink sketch she had done of a dragon. No, not this one. That turned on a light bulb: why not use St. George and the Dragon? Most people are familiar with one version or another.
Using St. George would also give me a chance to further develop my application of Michael Matson's discussion of fundamentalism and authenticity and how they apply to marketing. If you read the two extra article links in the Additional Information, you might see a connection to my anti-hero articles. If you don't know what I am talking about, I will explain in part 3 of this series.
Scott's article pretty much repeats the guru-is,s about autoresponders as part of that wonderful marketing strategy called email marketing. These email marketing fundamentalists do not seem to understand that the glory days of email marketing are long over. Like fundamentalists the world over, they feel that email marketing - or any other received tradition - is still valid because it worked in the past, so it will work now. Fundamentalist have a hard time with change, especially major change.
The days when people read all their email are over. I've quoted statistics compiled by companies with a vested interest in the continued "success" of email that paint a bleak picture.
The reason for this change form a bed of roses to the bed of thorns is spam. But the spammers are really taking the preaching of the email gurus to their logical conclusion. Remember, the whole idea of permission email marketing is not that old. It was just starting out five years ago when I first got online and not many people paid much attention to it.
People did not make even a half-baked attempt to get permission until the ISPs started taking the blacklists and groups like SpamCop seriously. They did that because they were following the big boys like AOL and MSN. The cant for all the anti-spam measures since then has been that this is for "our subscribers." Phooey! It's all about who gets the money and the power. If you've seen the classic sci-fi movie Rollerball, you have a pretty good idea of the kind of Internet the big boys want!
All this stuff about "for the good of subscribers" is a Orwellian Doublespeak. Another good movie to recall while reading this is George Lucas's first movie, THX1138. This propaganda campaign puts Hitler's brainwashing of the german people to shame. That was heavy-handed and clumsy compared to the insidious subtly of the email gurus.
Email is not what it used to be. Swimming in the waters of email marketing is asking to get hurt. The email sea is overrun with sharks of the most insidious kind. Your very life is at stake. All of the viruses, trojans, scams, hype that crosses over into false advertising and who knows what else predominate in email marketing.
I no longer do email marketing. I try to limit the number of lists that I subscribe to. I have three email accounts, not counting my one web-based account from Yahoo. One of those three is my ISP account and the other two are 3r-marketing.com accounts. Those are the only addresses I accept in my Thunderbird. I have my server set to reject anything else. MY ISP, in its infinite wisdom does not give me any such control over my email settings. They assign you a user name which is also your email address, Toy can set up an alias but email addressed to my login still get transmitted. There are only two people who know my personal email address, yet I get more spam in that one account than in the other two combined! Yet, this ISP supposedly installed email filters for the good of their subscribers. Right! Doublespeak which would make George Orwell proud.
I will continue this tomorrow since it is getting to be a rather lengthy article. Let me just wrap up today's discussion by saying that marketing with autoresponders is something I am guilty of having done in the past but no more. Autoresponders are the worst form of email marketing for reasons that will become clearer as we continue this series.
Additional information:
Here are two articles about St. George and the Dragon that would be useful for you to read before the next installment. This one is the orthodox fundamentalist version of the myth. Here is a more analytical approach that gives some interesting history of St. George. Aource Box
John Botscharow is the hopefully farsighted editor and publisher of the R Market Daily http://quikonnex.com/channel/page/3rmarketing/143 and the owner of 3R Marketing http://3r-marketing.com He is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Master, a "blogger" and has been a thorn in the side of the Establishment for almost forty years.
John has been an online publisher for more than four years and has dedicated himself and his company to teaching other dedicated professional publishers of small quality ezines how to take advantage of the available technology to make their ezines even more effective. Visit either the R Market Daily or 3R Marketing to learn more.
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