Buying Leads and Sys-Con Media

So buying names for a Marketing blast is a bad idea.  “Why” you ask?  Because the recipients (AKA “Victims”) don’t know you, are unfamiliar with your services, and generally respond poorly to this tactic.  Buying a list of “Victims” normally results in 3 things:

1. High Bounce Rates – Because the names and addresses are often gotten unscrupulously (unless a double opt in is utilized, which is less shady)
2. High Opt Out Rates – Again…they have no idea who you are.
3. Feelings of Violation on the part of the Recipient- How would you like it if some purchased your credit card or social security number from some unscrupulous source and started using it without your permission?

I’ll quickly give the “Reader’s Digest” account of a case in point .  Sys-Con Media (AKA – The Culprit), apparently purchased the name of Jame Ervin (AKA – the Victim) as part of what their CEO noted was a 4,000 name blast (See Jame’s blog for the specifics).  The mission – simple – Blast out a spammy message, and see if any of the Victims respond.

Of course, when Jame received the email, she (a) knew she didn’t opt in for this correspondence and (b) replied to the email asking to be Removed from the list by placing the word “REMOVE” in the title (it likely didn’t have an unsubscribe link), and providing some frank, however earnest feedback as to why she did not currently plan on spending her marketing dollars with Sys-Con (AUTHOR’S NOTE – Jame actually did go out to the Culprit’s website and check out Sys-Con’s offering)

What happened next is hard to explain.  The company’s Founder & CEO responded with a Not-so-CEO Like tirade that was loaded with “F Bombs”.  Since this is a Family Blog, I am NOT going to quote some of the CEO’s gems, for example “Mind your own business and keep your ideas to yourself“…I’m just not going to lower myself to that level. 

Instead – I’ve included a link to Jame’s Blog  where you can read the whole, sad exchange yourself. 

So here’s the bottom line – When you hijack someone’s personal information (e.g., buying a list of “leads”) for less than honest goals (e.g., illegally opting her into a list of 4,000 other unsuspecting victims), you lose the opportunity to be touchy when one of the victims asks to be removed from the list, and provides direct reasons why she won’t do business with you.