Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith in 'Mean Girls.'
Have you ever attended a professional event as a member of the press, blogger, or writer of some kind and the means of communicating the event’s updates were sent to you via e-mail?
That’s all well and good, right? Except when the event was over, you found that some random public relations person had decided to throw you and your e-mail on to a new mailing list that covers ALL of their clients…because apparently they have like ESPN or something and assume you really want to write about all these random people.
As I said previously, oblivious mass e-mailing is wrong — well this offense is right up there with it for a number of reasons:-
- Off Center
Just because I loved your e-mails the first time, totally used all the press releases you sent me, really cared that you were on top of your stuff sending me all the latest info and I was totally grateful that your original mailing list was created — doesn’t mean I care about what you have to say outside of that.
I’m the writer, you’re the public relations professional.
You’re supposed to relate to me, not the other way around. Keep your inner Karen Smith to a minimum, please!
- I Really Don’t Care
Right so, I didn’t sign up for this extra mailing list you seem to think I belong on. It’s not so much that I don’t like being on it — it’s actually the fact that I don’t care.
If I cared, then I would have signed up for it myself. Then you wouldn’t be wasting precious bytes of memory, I wouldn’t be wasting time hitting the ‘delete’ button and we’d all be happy 
- Target Audiences
I attended an event on women’s issues, beauty and fashion. Would you like to tell me why the hell you are now e-mailing me not only a bunch of random topics, but specifically political issues concerning local government in the state of California? Did I mention, by the way, I live in Florida?
Get it straight, get it right and leave me the hell alone!
Target Audiences were taught in Communications 101 in university, I suggest you take a refresher course.
- SPAM
You’re sending me information I didn’t sign up for, information that is irrelevant to me and –Â crap! there is no “unsubscribe” button or ‘reply’ to “unsubscribe from this mailing list” feature? You mean I actually have to take three whole minutes out of my day to e-mail you and asked to be removed?
This makes you a first class spammer. I think it’s time you got over the fact that you aren’t Regina George.
- Other Things to Consider
Aside and besides any of the above, are you sending out e-mails to your mailing list that is
a) overloaded with content, graphics and links?
If so, it might be too hard to read and no one will read it.
OR
b) scarce; there isn’t enough information, but you want to send one out anyway?
If so, it might be a waste of time and no one will read it.
Clean it up and make it ‘user-friendly.’ Think of what YOU want to read.
Little Pink Book’s Rule of PR #35:
Know your Target Audiences.
Otherwise, you, for lack of a better term,
your mailing list(s) suck.
Congrats you’ve succeeded in making me cranky.
~*~
**’Karen Smith’ & quotes from Mean Girls belong to Tina Fey, I just borrow them**
Totally unrelated, but a little Monday humor for you
–
Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida with a minor in Dance (’07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami(’08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima or get a copy of the ‘Little Pink Book’ delivered to your Kindle.
Copyright © 2009-2010 Sasha H. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.
Amen! I actually started to get these alumni emails from the university that MY HUSBAND went, and NOT me… Not only it's annoying as hell, I had to figure out (with no success) how the heck they got my email address in the first place… May be I need to figure out who's in charge of the mass emailing, and forward your post to him/her…
lol — good idea!
This actually happened to me and it inspired this post. I attended an event on women/fashion/beauty and all of a sudden the same PR person started sending me press releases, high-res images, I mean everything you could want/meed to write an article on — except it was for all of their clients and half of the stuff I don't care/want to write about.
The lastest thing in my box is a ton of stuff on local CA governments. No lie.
I kindly e-mailed them today and asked to be removed from the CA mailing list. Since Prop 8 is going on right now, I get about 4 e-mails a day with pictures and press releases. I was like, what?!
Lordy…
I totally agree. I have gone to an event which I thought might be interesting turned out I didn't belong there at all. Because my card went into a fish bowl I got put onto this stupid list of radio engineers.
Okay I don't care about transistors and it isn't like you are giving me any valuable information. Stop putting everyone's name into a data base when you clearly know they aren't your client or you can't help them. The card says what I am interested in.
Needless to say, I deleted them and tried to pass it on to someone who could use the information. If you are putting information into a data base consider the source first.
I would suggest that when you (anyone reading this comment) sign up for an event, use an email address that is similar to this: event-name [at]yourdomain dot com. Of course, this assumes you have your own domain and control its settings. This way at least you'll know where it's coming from and more importantly, if they give / sell it away. This works also for any vendors you buy things from. If you have an amazon at yourdomain and you start getting emails addressed to that address but it's actually from someone else, you'll know that amazon sold or gave it away. You can then effectively block it in your email program.
Yes, this treats the symptom, but until organizations get better at treating email addresses, it's a way to fight back.
What a great suggestion!
Thank you for your comment, I'm going to try that next time for sure
I would suggest that when you (anyone reading this comment) sign up for an event, use an email address that is similar to this: event-name [at]yourdomain dot com. Of course, this assumes you have your own domain and control its settings. This way at least you'll know where it's coming from and more importantly, if they give / sell it away. This works also for any vendors you buy things from. If you have an amazon at yourdomain and you start getting emails addressed to that address but it's actually from someone else, you'll know that amazon sold or gave it away. You can then effectively block it in your email program.
Yes, this treats the symptom, but until organizations get better at treating email addresses, it's a way to fight back.
What a great suggestion!
Thank you for your comment, I'm going to try that next time for sure