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{"id":838,"date":"2017-08-17T17:57:20","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T17:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icaruspressblog.wordpress.com\/?p=838"},"modified":"2019-04-17T10:43:25","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T10:43:25","slug":"838","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/838\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadians Speak Out: We Don’t Want Your Spam"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"Canada$ Considering what a pain in the posterior this thing called spam truly is, it doesn\u2019t seem particularly newsworthy to write an article reporting that a group of people admit to hating the stuff. That\u2019s like writing an article entitled \u201cRob Ford, We Want You to Go Far, Far, Away,\u201d or \u201cJustin Bieber, Defect to Russia Already.\u201d True, such platitudinous stories might have some entertainment value, but they don\u2019t really tell us anything we don\u2019t already know. So why bother, you ask. Why write a story \u2018revealing\u2019 that Canadians hate spam?<\/p>\n

For starters, because less than 60 days ago, the CASL, the Canadian Anti Spam Legislation, went into effect, thus making spam a bit harder for the world to promote, if that spam has a destination address located in Canada. The much-ballyhooed law, which emerged in 2010 and then sat on a shelf for nearly four years, finally became a big boy on July 1^{st<\/sup>, and the lead-up to the event was nothing short of maniacal. Businesses, political organizations, and not for profits scrambled to figure out what their responsibilities were. They blasted out emails to their mailing lists, asking for implicit permission to continue bothering people. The CRTC<\/a>, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, did its best to educate people while simultaneously warning them not to expect miracles<\/a> when the new law became active. The industry watchdog is tasked with enforcing the law, but as was predicted, complaints came in fast and furious after July 1^{st<\/sup>, and the CRTC has been inundated since with more than 50,000 new complaints in a month.<\/p>\n}}

But while Canadian spammers\u2013 many of them \u2018legitimate\u2019 businesses that use email as one of many marketing mechanisms \u2013 scramble to avoid being dinged with some pretty stiff fines, the email spam continues to flow like a babbling brook of insanity. As was also predicted, enforcing the law outside the borders of Canada was a next-to-impossible proposition. The \u2018real\u2019 source of spam, that 70 or 75 percent that we hear about all the time, continues practically unabated.<\/p>\n

So, who\u2019s really suffering under the law? Well, it could have and should have been predicted, but it\u2019s businesses inside Canadian borders who are being hit the hardest. According to the Financial Post<\/a>, \u201cCanadian companies are awaking to a new reality: People don\u2019t want to receive their email newsletters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shocking stuff, huh? Not. But as the FP points out, \u201cThe fallout of Canada\u2019s new anti-spam legislation, enacted July 1, has been substantial. After conducting a short survey of small and mid-sized Canadian companies in early July, I can report company email lists have seen a dramatic decline.\u201d One partner at a large Canadian accounting firm, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said that his or her company \u201clost 90% of our list. One in 10 people wanted to receive all those emails we were sending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalk one up for CASL, then. If 90% of a group votes no, then that\u2019s not just a clear majority; it\u2019s a sheer landslide. It suggests that what we thought was true. While companies would have you believe that THEIR email is desired \u2013 nay, needed \u2013 by their customer base, it\u2019s all hogwash. Email marketing agencies talk about all the ways in which you can circumvent spam filters<\/a>, in a ludicrous suggestion that your sales-y email has more value than any other unwanted digital communication.<\/p>\n

None of this<\/a> is news. The fact is, marketing spam has been a blight<\/a> on modern telecommunications, regardless of the delivery mechanism. Complaints lodged against email marketers alone have skyrocketed to 70%<\/a> according to some reports. And now we\u2019re seeing it in Canada, thanks to CASL. \u201cCustomers are making it clear,\u201d says the FP. \u201c\u2019Don\u2019t send unsolicited email.\u2019 They don\u2019t want newsletters, articles, promotions or updates. If they didn\u2019t subscribe to your content, they don\u2019t want to hear from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

So if it\u2019s not a shocker, is it newsworthy? Of course, for more reasons than you might suspect. You see, if you stop and think about it \u2013 really think about it \u2013 how insanely dumb is unwanted marketing effluvia? Marketers \u2013 and they\u2019re a stubborn bunch \u2013 would have their clients believe that theirs is the only information clients need to make informed purchasing decisions. And in a game of smoke and mirrors, they make everyone forget that while they\u2019re trying to sell you something, the worst thing you can do to someone who has the wherewithal and inclination to purchase is to dump a pile of garbage in their lap and assume that the stench of the garbage will make them take a closer look at it.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, CASL has exposed the garbage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"