Hello, I’m Brian, and I’m a spammer.
I recently came to this realization when I was asked to build a web application that took groups of people from our Church Management Software (here to remain un-named) and added them to lists on MailChimp using the MC API.
I was actually kind of excited about this idea since the mail-template building interface in our ChMS is, well, awful.
As a side note, MailChimp has a wonderful and well documented API with lots of useful methods. I found what I was looking for: the listBatchSubscribe method which I thought would take the list of names and emails I had requested from the ChMS API and subscribe them to the MailChimp list of my choosing.
Much to my horror, instead of adding these lucky Church attenders to the list, MC merely sent them an email ASKING them if they wished to subscribe. This was unacceptable. Clearly, I already knew that every member of our Church desperately wanted any and all email newsletters we would send to them.
Searching around I found out the MailChimp web app has an option to import a list of contacts (it is NOT however built into the API) and also happened upon this video:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGjaUxuvcvI&w=620&h=495]
After watching it, my world was rocked to the core.
I was a spammer.
We were spamming our unsuspecting Church attenders.
Let me be clear, I define spamming as sending someone a regular email that they did not ask for (or opt in).
Shaken by this revelation I presented it to one of my bosses and suggested we change our email newsletter subscriptions to an “opt in” model, asking them if they wanted to receive news and updates from our church.
The response was a trepidatious, “no”.
What if they don’t know that they want it?
To be fair, we’re some of the most well-intentioned spammers you’ll ever meet.
Does your Church spam?
David Alan Hjelle says
I guess I’ve always assumed that if I give my email address to a local organization, I’m opting-in to communication from them. I don’t know if that’s the *legal* definition or not.
(Perhaps the video addresses that…I haven’t taken the time to view it yet.)
Brian Notess says
It’s definitely a “grey” area. I’m not passing judgement. I felt convicted by the video.
Eric J says
@David
“There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as “relationship” messages under CAN-SPAM.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003#Unsubscribe_compliance
Here is your legal definition :D.
Eric J says
we are probably not spammers but we might make mistakes from time to time, remember that you have to include your address in all your email communications according to the can-spam act, even though churches are exempt it’s good to follow the rules anyways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003#Unsubscribe_compliance
Brian Notess says
I wasn’t exactly going by the official legal definition of spamming, although you’re right, it’s good to know the rules. I defined spamming as:
Sending a large list of people regular emails that they did not ask for.
By this definition, were spammers. The challenge for us is to figure out how to make our emails something people would want to receive.
Eric J says
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours :p here is last weeks all church weekly email
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10314275/e-Loop-07-21-2011.html
Brian Notess says
Nice. That looks petty similar to one of ours (I never compose them but sometimes help with the templating).
Ours actually has a lot more announcements and links… even though we try hard to keep it simple.
Ben says
It’s all about being authentic. It may take more time to build up a good list but there are ways to do it and when you do the payoff is so much better. That’s the hard part for many people to understand.
Getting rich quick scams or a quick list techniques are called unwise even by Solomon. Why should we not apply those same principles to our modern technology. Prov 10:4 http://bible.us/Prov10.4.KJV
Hey, Just so you know…I ain’t no better than y’all at keeping my hands clean from spam. I think it’s just fun to see how scripture teaches us principles about good tech rules to live by.
Brian Notess says
Great thoughts Ben. I think this will be a long term project for us. Adding value to our emails and building list of people who find the information valuable.
It’s much easier to just to spam everyone in our directory.