This week we sent out a couple eNewsletters. Usually we don’t bombard our contacts this much but this week was an exception.
The first email was related to an interview that CBC did with me. Dave Simms from CBC Television wanted my opinion on the Bing-Yahoo search story. The crux of the issue is whether or not the alliance will have an impact on Google search volume. My answer was No the merger will have minimal impact. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will have more of an “impact” but realistically Google as a search medium will be with us for quite a few years. 70% of the searches worldwide go through Google. Actually, that is incorrect – my figures seem to be out of date. Market Share by NetApplication reports that Google has over 80% market share. Statcounter agrees. Wow.
We also sent out an email to announce our preview event on Wednesday, September 2 for IMC Vancouver. Avinash Kaushik from Google will be the keynote speaker. The conference will be fantastic and Anduro is helping to promote the conference by hosting an event here in Calgary a few weeks ahead of time. More about this in a future post.
Maybe we should have waited a bit before sending the second email. Today I received an email from a person I met a couple weeks ago at a business networking function wondering if it was “commonly accepted courtesy” to send a newsletter to someone without formally “opting-in”. This is an interesting question so I did some research and some thinking about what is ethical. Keep in mind that this event is explicitly a “networking function”.
One point of view by FutureQuest is that companies should have prospects opt-in if the email address is obtained from a business card. Technically this is probably correct but I’m not sure that this is practical or that it really makes a difference.
Another point of view that I like is expressed by Chip House. His post is titled: Business Card in Hand Doesn’t Mean Opt-in. Chip makes a differentiation between receiving a business card along with a handshake and receiving a card in a fishbowl. The former implies “opt-in” and the latter requires formal opt-in permission. I agree. Meeting someone, shaking their hand and getting a business card leads me to assume that I can phone the person, mail them a letter (even direct mail), fax them and send them an email – assuming that all those points of contact are on the business card.
Practically, I’m not sure how much difference it makes to get “opt-in permission”. Technically, we don’t have formal permission to send out the first email asking the person to opt-in.
My conclusion is that when I meet people at networking events I consider them business contacts who are interested in me, our company and what we are doing. I know I’m definitely interested in them and their company. So if you don’t want me to phone you or email you (tailor made or eNewsletter), then don’t give me your business card. But if you want to gain value from all the business contacts that we have in our company then we would love to have your business card and start a dialog with you.
I agree, when a (potential) client gives me a business card there is an implicit permission for communication to occur between us. If the (potential) client does not want to receive eNewsletter communication they always have the ability to opt out.
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This is a great question. It’s true that if you hand out your business card, you invite communication in which ever way is available on the card. You are opting-in.