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I detest SPAM, but there's an awful lot of it going around
Net, as you know. Co-incidentally, there's an awful lot of another-four-letter-word-that-starts-with-S going around with it (just so there's no mis-understandings, I'm talking about porn)!
If you don't know what SPAM is, most Netizens would maybe say "any unsolicited commercial email". Others, more strident, would say "any email I didn't want", which sort of begs
question, doesn't it?
Now, it (almost) goes with saying that unsolicited, bulk, commercial email is - to put it delicately - a pain in
posterior. We've all been getting a lot of it already through our regular, bricks-and-mortar mailbox for years, so why should we have to put up with it over
Net?
Well,
short answer is, of course, we don't! What do you do now with
SPAM in your real mail-box? So...do likewise with
electronic variety and leave it at that: problem gone.
Not "solved" of course, just gone - until next time. And, that gets pretty tedious and annoying, right? Right...
Enter
anti-SPAM legislators.
And, quite properly too. However, granted that there should be, and must be, some form of penalties applied to repeated offenders (offline and online), still I think we have to be careful - to use a fractured phrase - not to crack
egg that
golden goose laid!
Picture this: You operate a successful bakery and are doing alright. You don't have a website yet, your profits are good and you're holding your own against
competition in town. There you are, busily getting
next batch of muffins into
oven and this guy walks into your store. Happily, you put down baking tray, take off your baker's hat, and turn to what you think is
next customer.
Only, he isn't.
Instead, after politely introducing himself and establishing his credentials as
new kid on
block from
Better Baking Soda Company, he then calmly tells you that he can improve your profits by 25% if you use his fantastic new baking soda.
Are you going to start throwing week-old muffins at him, for having
audacity to interrupt your work? Or, knowing what your costs are, vis-a-vis
whole baking process, are you going to stop and think for a bit - and then start throwing
muffins, but only maybe? ;-) On
other hand, maybe your business isn't doing too well, or you want to do better. Instead of throwing those muffins, maybe you should think about how you can make them last longer?
That's a very simple scenario, but one that is repeated thousands of time, every day, in all forms of business. Indeed, it's how many businesses must operate, being those types that sell only to other businesses. And, one of
most important tools of business is marketing, its proper operation and its effective maintenance.