Member-only story
The Blind (Carbon Copy) Leading the Blind
I stumbled across something I hadn’t heard of in quite some time at a content marketing seminar I was running recently.
Over lunch, one of the delegates mentioned she was looking forward to the email marketing session in the afternoon. She told a fellow attendee that she had a small list that she hoped to grow, but wasn’t really sure how she should go about it.
My ears pricked up when I heard the advice she was given, which went something like this:
“If your list is small, I wouldn’t bother with an email marketing tool. Just use Outlook and email all of your clients using the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) function”
I try not to contradict delegates at my seminars (I believe there is no such thing as a bad idea — although some ideas are better than others) — but on hearing the advice she was given, I had to jump in, shouting across the table, “I’m sorry; you are wrong.”
Outlook is not an email marketing tool, and to use it in such a manner is, quite frankly, dangerous.
Why Outlook Is Not a Suitable Replacement for Email Marketing Software
- No Unsubscribe Link: Bulk commercial email messages MUST include instructions for the subscriber to unsubscribe. Email marketing software includes a simple unsubscribe link and manages any…
