I’m not sure about you, but I have very a good filter on my email which limits daily junk down to usually a couple of dozen. There are people I know who get hundreds – a day.
I had a look at the addresses and subject lines this morning.
It's understandable how someone may accidentally open an email that looks somewhat legit, but I’m now getting emails with domain extensions that don’t exist, or the latest – a completely blank email – no subject line and no email addy.
I even received the infamous email from Nigeria that says - you send me money and I’ll deposit hundreds of thousands in your bank account - last week. That one has been going on for years and the scam continues. Clearly people are replying to it.
Who falls for this stuff? I know, a lot of people do or it wouldn’t be escalating at a rate faster than Paris Hilton is spending her inheritance, but c’mon! You have to admire the persistence because any marketing or research person will tell you that 10% return is huge, so if you're sending an email to the planet the odds are in your favor that you'll get one of two.
More importantly, how do you market your message if you are legit? I have a colleague who wants to do a direct mail piece along with an email companion. Direct mail continues to be a very popular form of advertising but we are all getting savvier at weeding through it.
As digital marketing grows, we will need to be smarter about reaching potential customers with actual real messages.
Feel free to send me an email but only if it’s a legitimate response. I already have four lawnmowers, eleven office chairs, a dancing penguin, and apparently I may already be the winner of all-expense paid trip to Boca Raton.
km
