There have been some interesting comments recently on a networking site about spam and people’s attitudes towards it

Several people have said that they are not bothered by it and it only takes a minute to delete it.

It’s an interesting thought, when it is actually ‘interruption marketing’ that is distracting from people’s focus, and in the modern world has less place than traditionally.

An example:

Someone comes to your office without an appointment to sell you something you hadn’t asked for.
You may listen to their pitch and decide it’s not for you – so politely tell them so and go back to what your were working on.

10 minutes later they come back and give their pitch again…

It wouldn’t be acceptable in the offline world, so it shouldn’t be acceptable online either.

Many people now have a policy of automatically deleting unsolicited emails, without even looking at them, similarly for direct mail.

There is still a place for these as part of an overall marketing strategy, but it is important to understand that they need to be targeted and of interest if they are to be successful.

My view is that the online and offline worlds are very similar, so you shouldn’t do something online that you wouldn’t do in a face to face meeting.