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‘Tis the season for peace, joy… and spamtastic holiday emails! No, this isn’t a rant about eCommerce direct email marketing campaigns– though life certainly would go on without explosive email blasts every morning at 3:25 am from a certain popular clothing store just itching to promote sweater sales & shipping discounts. The luxury of crossing everything off that mile-long gift list in a cool 60 minutes of online shopping whilst wearing sweats & slipper booties, sipping coffee spiked with Baileys is totally worth those pesky, more-often-than-not opt-out email blasts.
Our digital culture has almost grown accustomed to seasonal junk mail— sure, it kind of sucks, but it’s part of the package deal: with online shopping comes emails about online discounts, etc. However… when that holiday spam-mail isn’t coming from a chain retail store, but a church… and the recipient is a feisty marketer… eyebrows contort Grinch-style in curiosity, and the question begs to be asked: WWMWD?
Yes, what would Marty Weintraub do? Â What indeed…
‘Twas the night before Saturday, December 11th, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring until BZZ BZZ went the smartphone at 11:37 PM, pulling Marty out of a  warm, cozy, productive, coffee-fueled book writing sesh. The couldn’t-wait-til-morning news? An email blast from church located about 2.5 hours south of Duluth, announcing its “~ CHRISTMAS BY THE CREEK in Maple Grove.”
Bothered by the needless break in concentration, the inclusion on an opt-me-in-without permission list, and the glaring lack of “Unsubscribe” functionality, Marty sent a simple request-reply:
To which he received this response from the sender the following morning:
To which Marty replied, at length:
- Don’t use the holidays as an excuse for sending spam emails?
- Don’t use the type of content (in this case, religious) as an excuse for sending spam emails?
- Don’t send opt-out / opt-me-in-without permission email blasts. (Dude, write this one down.)
- Don’t send opt-me-in-without permission email blasts unless the message includes an “Unsubscribe” link?
- Don’t send spam? (Period!)
Whatever the takeaways, we know now what Marty would do did. What about you? Does this instance make your skin crawl or is it a simple case of shrug-off inbox noise?
