I hate spam.
E-mail marketers keep sending me all kinds of useless pitches. Some of them are dead giveaways. Any time they start with "let us show you how we can help Tyco Healthcare", I know that the rest of the message is worthless.
I've tried to reduce their volume. The most effective way is to use the "unsubscribe" feature. Recent legislation has forced most legitimate e-mail marketers to include some type of link to opt out of unwanted messages. Some of them are very clever about the way they hide the link in very tiny type at the bottom of pages or coordinated within the message itself.
I also find that some of them want you to send e-mail with "remove" or something similar in the subject line. I'm always a bit wary about those. If I do send it, I make sure to erase the automatic signature block.
Within Outlook, there is a feature to mark unwanted messages as "junk". I've used that for marketers who do not include any of the above methods (and some of the ones that make you send e-mail back, depending on my mood).
When I was in sales, one of the techniques we learned was called the "assumptive close." That method requires the sales person to act as if the customer will purchase the product no matter what. It essentially forces the customer to take active steps to stop the sales process. Many of the spam e-mails I get use this method.
I just received one this morning that I successfully unsubscribed from. I clicked on the link. It took me to a web page which announced my successful removal from the list. At the bottom of the message, it said:
"We're sorry that we lost you."
I'm not sure how they can be sorry when they never had me!
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