Rant: How To Sound Like A Spammer

I wrote about this already here, but it's worth repeating. If you're evaluating and calling up email marketing services, do not use the word "BLAST." As in, "Hi, I want to blast a list with my promo" or, "We have ten million opt-in subscribers (yeah, right) and we want to blast them with a newsletter."

"Blast" connotes mass destruction. Use it for describing machine guns, cannons, missiles, or tanks. Not if you're a permission marketer.

When someone uses the word "blast" with us, it raises some red flags. It's like walking into a car dealership and asking, "Sooooooo, which one of these will outrun the cops?" or like walking into a bank with a ski mask on. It must be some relic of the old fax-blasting days.

We've turned lots of potential customers away, just for using that word. It's an indicator that the person just hasn't done his research about permission marketing, email marketing etiquette, and spam complaints. He obviously thinks email is a one-way-street, so is probably not too concerned about proper list management.

Instead of "blast" try, "communicate." As in, "I'd like to setup an email marketing system so I can communicate with my customers." Think how peaceful our inboxes would be if we stopped blasting, and started communicating.