The Hidden Realities of Spam Marketing: What You Need to Know
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Chapter 1: Understanding Spam
To clarify one point: spam is detrimental. Phishing emails are even worse and sending them is unethical. However, technically, almost any online advertisement could be classified as spam. For instance, an ad on YouTube may reach users who haven't opted to receive it, despite established usage policies that are often unilaterally dictated by major tech companies.
How often do you see someone decline "I do not agree to the terms of use," or do you know anyone who has read a product's terms in detail? In principle, anything can be labeled as spam. While many consider copywriters as spammers, for the purpose of this discussion, let's focus on email, messenger, and social media spam for simplicity.
Surprisingly, spam can be a highly effective marketing tactic, yet it is seldom discussed among marketers. The silence isn't due to ethical considerations; rather, it's a result of fierce competition within the industry.
Why is this?
Recently, I encountered spam not as a recipient but from a company engaged in cold emailing. Although they don’t label their practices as spam, the methods employed often fit that description. So, what makes spam effective?
Section 1.1: The Nature of Spam
Spam is ubiquitous, and while most people dislike it, a significant portion is received willingly. For example, when visiting a physical store, you're often offered a discount card in exchange for your email or phone number. That 10% discount leads you to consent to promotional emails. Although these offers can be beneficial if you frequently use a particular brand or service, the overabundance of messages from various businesses can lead to confusion and annoyance.
As a result, we often overlook potentially valuable offers. Personally, I have a dedicated phone number and email address for such communications.
Email marketing works, even if most of us are savvy enough to ignore spam. Yet, some individuals read these messages, click links, and make purchases based on them. If this weren't the case, companies wouldn’t invest in crafting attractive email designs and user experiences.
Notably, if these promotions don't land in your inbox, they often find you through platforms like Telegram and Viber. Shockingly, entire businesses exist solely to distribute spam via these apps, seemingly without facing any consequences.
Section 1.2: Why Spam Works
Spam is a cost-effective traffic source. Some studies dispute this, but remember that the researchers using botnets weren't traditional spammers; they were simply imitating existing offers, so virality stemmed from the product, not the marketing strategy.
Another crucial factor is the availability of databases filled with personal information. You don’t need to dive into the dark web to find them; you can purchase such data on Telegram. Disturbingly, some of these databases include not just names and phone numbers but also sensitive personal data collected by companies. This information allows for highly targeted marketing efforts.
Interestingly, people tend to have more trust in spam from companies they recognize, believing their information was acquired accidentally rather than through malicious means.
So where does that leave us?
It's clear: spam is inexpensive and can be highly lucrative, especially with well-optimized databases that can be tailored to specific campaigns. But this is only scratching the surface.
Chapter 2: Leveraging Spam for Marketing
The first video, "Top 10 Untold Truths of SPAM (Part 2)," explores the hidden aspects of spam marketing, revealing how it functions and why it persists.
The second video, "Top 10 Untold Truths of SPAM," delves into the intricacies of spam marketing, discussing its impacts and implications for marketers and consumers alike.
Now, let's pivot from the darker sides of spam to its potential uses in marketing. If you have access to local databases—even limited to phone numbers or email addresses—you could leverage these resources for targeted outreach.
What’s the goal? Suppose you hypothesize that one audience segment ("A") would benefit from your product, while another ("B") would not. You could conduct a targeted test to validate your assumption, or alternatively, you could utilize spam to reach a significantly larger sample size at the same budget.
This approach may raise ethical questions, but it remains one of the cheapest methods for testing advertising strategies. However, reputation risks persist. If reputation isn't a priority for you, then perhaps you should reconsider your stance on using spam.
Section 2.1: The Landscape of Affiliate Spam
Spam is occasionally present in affiliate marketing, but it’s not prevalent across all sectors. Typically, it’s seen more in lower-margin areas that encourage impulse buying rather than high-margin fields like dating services.
Interestingly, while these sectors may not shy away from spam, they tend to rely more on clandestine methods rather than overt database mailings.
Section 2.2: The Risks Involved
Spam often leads to reputational damage, which is why many large companies operate without guilt. We’re not referring to cold emailing but to affiliate marketing, where a disconnect can exist between a company and its spammy "partners."