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Two thoughts: First, I abhor solicitations and junk mail. I discard them without a second thought, and never open them. So I wonder what the success rate of the
by Overtonwindow 9y ago
Two thoughts: First, I abhor solicitations and junk mail. I discard them without a second thought, and never open them. So I wonder what the success rate of these mailings are, and their cost effectiveness. Do people really open junk mail? I'm even more annoyed when I am tricked on the rare occasion to open them.
Second, early in my career I worked as a receptionist. I once received thirty envelopes for the thirty partners in the firm. Each contained an old skeleton key. This was maybe 2003, so to send a metal skeleton key in an envelope to thirty individuals was, by no means, an insignificant sum. My director, upon reading the first solicitation, declared them all persona non grata, toss the letters, and the keys. No one ever saw the letters and the keys wound up at the Goodwill on my way home.
- twblalock 9y agoThe US Direct Marketing Association claims that "direct marketing," which most people call "junk mail" or "spam," results in about 8.7% of US GDP per year. So, I would expect that quite a few people not only read junk mail but also purchase what it advertises.
- maxxxxx 9y agoSame for spam. Most likely people wouldn't send spam if they didn't make money that way.
- QAPereo 9y agoUnless they’ve been lead to believe that it works, and it doesn’t? Or maybe the way to sell fraudulent pills doesn’t translate to how you sell many other products?
- twblalock 9y ago> Unless they’ve been lead to believe that it works, and it doesn’t? In the long run, it's pretty difficult to convince a business that something makes money if the money doesn't actually show up. Sure, some businesses might be poorly run, and therefore be misled for a long time. But the industry as a whole would have noticed if spam didn't work.
- tbrownaw 9y agoIn the long run, it's pretty difficult to convince a business that something makes money if the money doesn't actually show up. 1. In the long run, everyone involved has moved on to other positions. 2. If the money doesn't show up, that just means you're doing it wrong. Like all the various software methodologies that are supposed to increase productivity or reduce bugs. 3. "Half of money spent on marketing is wasted, it's just impossible to know which half." The real world is rarely simple enough to give the kind of clear results you'd get from a proper well-designed experiment.
- noitsnot 9y agoMy bet it mostly works for third world countries where a few thousand dollars a year is average pay.
- analog31 9y agoIn my view, it's worth considering whom spam is sold to. The customer is not the person who receives spam in their in-box. It's the person who pays for their business to conduct a spam campaign. Spam is a money-maker if it can be sold to businesses.
- maxxxxx 9y agoSomebody is handing out real money. I bet they wouldn't be doing this they didn't benefit from it.
- tedmiston 9y agoDelivering spam is a money maker too. Remember that USPS is paid to deliver junk mail just like any other mail; however it's cheaper than normal mail and they will make less delivery attempts — just one, I believe.
- Consultant32452 9y agoJunk mail is cheaper per unit than first class mail, but there's so much of it that it significantly subsidizes first class mail (the mail normal people send).
- c3534l 9y agoThe problem is it costs the sender very little, but annoys everyone.
- Dylan16807 9y agoDifferent for spam is how much less it costs. A penny (or tenth of one) is a bargain compared to postal prices, but would cut off most junk email.
- Animats 9y agoNah. Advertising mostly moves spending around. It doesn't create more spending. The US savings rate is so low below the top 10% that essentially all income is spent. This is one argument for taxing advertising heavily.
- RasputinsBro 9y ago> Advertising mostly moves spending around. It doesn't create more spending. Citation needed. You're talking out of your ass.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- corin_ 9y agoI downvoted you for your rudeness but not for your sentiment. You could have disagreed civilly.
- RasputinsBro 9y agoPeople who go around confidently stating their guesses as facts are a net negative for society and it's about time the rest of us start treating them as such.
- amelius 9y agoThis is why, whenever you get unsolicited marketing calls, you should waste as much of their time as you can, even if it wastes your time. The best option is to tell them that you are interested, or even tell them that you are going to get your credit card, and then leave the phone off the hook.
- thisacctforreal 9y agoI couldn’t do that knowing someone is on the other side of the phone just trying to earn a living. These organizations are annoying and unwelcome, but I’m not sure if they are actively nefarious. Though if it’s disguised to get through filters then I have much less sympathy for a person knowingly participating.
- khedoros1 9y agoI feel a little sorry for the employee themselves. I'm sure most of them know that what they do is annoying, and would choose another option for work if they could. On the other hand, my phones are all on the do-not-call list, and if they don't immediately hang up when I tell them, then I might decide to waste some of their time.
- WalterBright 9y agoEarning a living by bothering people in their homes and wasting their time is not something I'm sympathetic to.
- thinkloop 9y agoOr you could automate it and not waste your own time! https://youtu.be/EzedMdx6QG4 https://youtu.be/EzedMdx6QG4
- notahacker 9y agoIf you're working in Silicon Valley and/or a software developer, chances are the time you waste is worth a lot more than the time they waste, even if they waste more
- paxy 9y ago
- csa 9y agoThis is not a fair assessment. A big chunk of the direct marketing that results in actual sales comes from catalogs that people order and/or want -- I am not sure I would call that "spam". This type of direct marketing can be very cost efficient -- it's the old idea of selling more to people who are already your customers. As for the actual junky junk mail, I've seen 1-2% yields from well-designed programs (as others have mentioned). I've seen online campaigns (fb, adwords, amazon, etc.) with comparable yields.
- DougN7 9y agoIn my experience, people that understand databases and personalization tech (mail merge and more) are jaded and harder to sell to. But we in IT are a minority , so I don’t doubt it works well for many demographics.
- QAPereo 9y agoI know plenty of people from other walks of life... none of them have time or interest in junk mail or unsolicited calls.
- freehunter 9y agoWell yeah, if you ask someone if they like spam, they're gonna say no. But that doesn't mean they don't still respond to it. I don't like the Great Deals "magazine" that get shipped to me every month with no way of opting out of it, but that doesn't stop me from clipping a coupon for 50% off at a local restaurant. In this sample of 1, you now have a 100% disapproval rating but also a 100% effectiveness rating.
- QAPereo 9y agoI didn’t say that I polled them, but rather that this is my continued and consistent observation over long periods.
- codingdave 9y ago> I wonder what the success rate of these mailings are Some quick searching came back with a 1-2% response rate, and $50-100 acquisition cost per customer. I'm not sure if those numbers are accurate across all industries or not, but I am sure that people who do this for a living would do the research to get those numbers right. So it is no different than any other marketing in that if you know how much a customer is worth, you just do the math to know if this type of marketing is worth your time. Our personal feelings about it don't factor into those equations. Personally, I agree with you, but the companies who do these mailings won't cry themselves to sleep over our feelings, or if they do, it will be on pillows stuffed with cash made from their direct mailings...