July 2004

Direct Marketing vs. Other Marketing: Part III
In part 3 of this series, we'll discuss the latest developments in telemarketing and e-mail marketing. If you missed the other related articles, you'll find links to those below.

SPAM:
This year, the federal CAN-SPAM law went into effect. The intention of the law was to force advertisers to offer opt-out options to e-mail recipients, thereby curbing e-mail to only "legitimate" advertisers. As critics of the legislation are quick to point out, CAN-SPAM actually made SPAM legal by allowing advertisers to transmit unsolicited e-mail. In fact, SPAMmers can continue to contact you endlessly as long as they provide an opt-out function. The law says it is the victim's responsibility to contact the  SPAMmer to opt-out of the advertisements. And you must then give them a full 10 days to comply.

CAN-SPAM did nothing but aid the SPAMmers with legal support and a license to clog inboxes everywhere. In a recent survey of e-mail users in the United States, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 53% of respondents saw no change in e-mail volume after CAN-SPAM, and 24% actually saw an increase in SPAM.

What does this mean for the direct mail industry? The backlash from SPAM was already well underway. The shear volume of SPAM was what prompted the CAN-SPAM Act and as the volume continues to increase with no relief in site, the response to SPAM will be such that it will become a losing prospect for advertisers. The same fate of telemarketing.

This is evidenced by other findings in the Pew survey such 
as: 

29% have reduced their e-mail usage, up from 25% last year
63% say they trust e-mail less due to SPAM, up from 52%


Telemarketing:
Virginia-based MCI, the nation's second largest long-distance carrier, is well-known for unrelenting use of telemarketing. Here in Wichita, Kansas, MCI will close it's call center in August, eliminating 700 jobs. That announcement also listed the closing of MCI's Colorado Springs, Colorado call center and reductions at call centers in South Carolina and Iowa for a total of 2,000 jobs lost.

As recently as March 2004, MCI closed call centers in Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; and Niles, Ohio; and cut jobs at centers in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Alpharetta, Georgia; and Springfield, Missouri. That round of eliminations put 4,000 people out of work.

In the first half of 2004, MCI reduced their work force to 40,000, eliminating 14,000 jobs around the country. Industry analysts cited the price war with AT&T and No-Call lists as causes of MCI's financial woes. When asked what they thought caused the closing of call centers, departing MCI employees blamed the federal do-not-call list.


Related articles:
November 2003: Where Are We Now?
(http://www.mailcci.com/past_issues/112003.asp)

February 2004: Part II
(http://www.mailcci.com/past_issues/022004.asp)

March 2004: Do Not Mail Registry?
(http://www.mailcci.com/past_issues/032004.asp)

May 2004: Politicians Exempt From Do Not Call Law
(http://www.mailcci.com/past_issues/052004.asp)

News Poll
Send your vote to mailto:webmaster@mailCCI.com or vote online. Visit http://www.mailCCI.com and in the Interactive menu choose Today's Survey.

Will you vote in the upcoming November election?

____ Yes
____ No

We'll post the poll results here in next month's e-newsletter.
------------------------------------------------------------
Results of last month's poll: 

Are you registered to vote?

54% Yes
46% No

See the results of other surveys CCI has conducted online at http://www.mailCCI.com/data/surveys.asp.

www.mailCCI.com
Did you know you can estimate travel distance at mailCCI.com? It's true. An added benefit of the premium SCF Subscription service, you can actually estimate the distance between two points in the U.S. All you need is the zip codes for your starting point and destination and SCF Look Up will estimate the distance between.

And, if you don't know the zip code for your destination, just use the Zip Code Look Up free trial. Type in a partial city name, just a state, or any combination of city, state, zip, or even county and get all the matches. It's very easy to use.