Business E-mail Form Spam

Some think because you have your e-mail address published on your site that gives them the right to e-mail you about anything they want whether you are interested or not.

Particularly things they can personally or commercially gain from. Can you say Spam!?

More specifically sales pitches sent to site owners through their Web forms. Because a company has a form on their site for you to use to contact them does not mean you use their resources to send them your junk mail or sales pitches. That’s called Form Spam.

Web site forms are there to contact the site owner with questions about their company, product or service. If you don’t respect that, you actions will speak volumes as to the caliber of business you run and your level of professionalism.

I assumed that as time went on and folks became more acclimated to technology, that they would come around to the right and courteous way to do things. To my disappointment proportionately the opposite seems to have occurred. If we don’t have to pick up a phone or meet in person, we take the easy route by filling out site forms whether the site owner is like or not. The number of non-targeted impersonal sales pitches sent through Web site forms to uninterested site owners is increasing exponentially. What a waste of bandwidth.

Now, that’s not to say all form solicitations are Spam. I’ve had a rare few who have taken the time to personalize their request by letting me know they have reviewed my site and why they believe their e-mail is a benefit to us both. Or those who ask in their initial inquiry who is the best contact for them to send their information to and if I am even interested before blathering on are quite refreshing. Those who use discretion and professionalism in their e-mail activities are rare; very rare. And it is those rare few who build successful and healthy businesses.

How can any site owner take seriously templated sales pitches sent to them through their Web site? The answer is they don’t. Instead those who take this approach should imagine the sound of sit owners everywhere hitting their delete buttons.

Some More Info for You:

1. Business E-mail Etiquette: Stop the Forwarding Form Letter
2. It’s Still Spam!
3. E-mail Etiquette & Web Site Forms
4. Unasked for E-mail is Spam
5. CAN-SPAM and Your Business Email