Dear valued customer, we are sending this email to another 10 million customers
How many times have you received an email explaining that you are a “super valued customer” and therefore you get a superior discount, and lo and behold, here is a coupon to take to our store and buy more stuff so we can do plus quarterly earnings and shareholders’ equity? Isn’t it interesting that these emails start appearing towards the end of each month? The question I have is; Am I really a valued customer if the company also sent the exact same marketing and promotional email to over 10 million other customers? Okay, now you’re laughing, but let’s go ahead and talk about this for a second, okay?
Perhaps this is a lot like assuming that the light in your refrigerator goes off when you close the door. You know the light goes off, because if you press the button that automatically activates the door when it closes, the light inside the fridge goes off, so you assume you close the door and the light goes off too. However, he doesn’t know for sure, he only understands the laws of physics, or at least the basic law of physics, and actually assumes that the light goes out. He’s not sure that his “dear special customer” email was sent to 10 million other people in exactly the same format, but he assumes it was.
However, because I have multiple things I do online, and occasionally end up with different accounts at various vendors and stores I shop at, I often get the exact same email from the same company, so I no longer assume they are sending the same email to everyone. I know they are, because they sent me the same email twice, and sometimes three times.
Still, something very interesting happened the other day, I noticed that the email was customized to the business model and the emails weren’t exactly the same. I told myself this is great, computers are getting better at evaluating your customers, finding out what they need and sending them a more personalized email. That’s a good thing, and it especially makes sense because it helps reduce spam and only gives you the right information you need or could want through targeted marketing.
In fact, as computers get better, and sadly to the pain of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, they take all your data from all social networks and only send you exactly what you might be looking for, to the best of your ability. as long as you have put information on the Internet that is true and correct.
Personally, and probably like you, I am getting tired of certain types of spam, like male performance enhancement or special custom bras. In fact, I don’t have the first problem, at least not yet, being a young man, and second being a man, I don’t need a bra, so obviously some more work needs to be done, and maybe some of these emails to marketing purposes will really help reduce the endless barrage and avalanche of spam. Please consider all this and think about it.