Is spamming thousands of people really the best way to raise campaign funds? Is it a little creepy getting email from a candidate you’ve never heard from before, asking you to click a link and donate? Just because political spam is legal doesn’t make it right – or even welcome to the recipient.
This is the second or third political campaign email I’ve received this month. The messages come to an email address that I rarely use or check. At some point in the past, I must have used that address to register for a candidate or organization’s email list. Either way, that email address is now being circulated to a number of political campaigns who send me campaign donation requests.
While I’m not really bothered by the messages, most people really don’t like spam, political or otherwise. Here are some thoughts on these unsolicited messages:
1) The campaigns either bought or borrowed my address from another campaign or organization. Unfortunately, I can’t tell where. Usually when I sign up for a newsletter, I use the domain of the list’s website as my name. That way, if I get spam from another site using the other website as my name, I can tell who ‘sold me out’.
2) The candidates don’t care enough to actually keep me in the loop about the campaign. Of the recent messages I’ve received, they’ve all been one-time requests for money, and none of them followed up with further news. Nice to feel a connection there.
3) All the campaigns that have sent me this political spam are from out-of-state. Does this really work, asking out of state people for political donations? I guess with the cost of sending bulk email, it doesn’t hurt to ask everyone, everywhere, for a few dollars. Still, I think it annoys more people than inspires anyone to open their wallets.
4) All the messages have unsubscribe links. I don’t bother, because if my email address has been harvested and is passed around by a larger organization, opting out of individual lists won’t help avoid new messages.
5) If enough people marked these messages as ‘spam’ from their in box, many email services will shut down the list (and possibly the sender’s account). It seems risky sending bulk email to thousands of people who do not have a connection with the campaign.
The Can-SPAM covers only e-mail promoting commercial products or services. Political campaigns are exempt. However, our advice to campaigns is to send email messages only to people who have specifically requested to be contacted. Period.
As political campaigning online continues to grow, so will the problem of political spam. For now, I’m just glad they don’t have my primary address.
For fund raising and campaign correspondence ideas, check out our Campaign Letter Templates and Campaigns Slogan E-Book. (Just don’t use them for political spam!)
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Tags: campaign fundraising, campaign letters, email, spam