WTF is this company selling?

AtomBomb

My boss sent me this, thinking it might be a good idea. It sounds like a spam list to me, which is something I don't think any legitimate business should be a part of. I'm guessing that their "participant" data is either from shady companies who are willing to sell their customer data, or people who click on those "win a free Xbox 360" type ads. However, since it is my boss I want to get a second opinion.

Here's what he sent me:

And here's the text if you don't want to open the picture:

Now marketers can grow the number of emails on their customer list through a brand new product developed by ePostDirect. ePostDirect uses fresh, top-notch quality data from participants contributing their active customer files. A unique product that offers both quality and high match rates that can reach 40%.

ePostDirect can also help put you back in touch with your previous email subscribers and help reduce lost revenues due to changing email addresses.

Email is such an important asset, the more email addresses a marketer has available the more opportunity they have to increase sales.
read more..

---

ePostDirect is focused on finding scalable, quality solutions that will enable marketers to increase their company’s revenue. For more
information on this new product or other fast and cost-effective online customer acquisition and email communication services, please contact:
James McGoey at 845-731-3856 or email james.mcgoey@epostdirect.com

Thanks!

Uncle Long

Yep, sounds like a spam list. It appears to be a company that buys customer information and then sells it by matching the information with the business. Seems like an information middle man, more or less.

Ruckus

The guy's name is James McGoey.

McGoey.

McGooey?

Also, I agree, sounds like spam.

I'm pre-emptively blocking that domain.

EggyToast

Even worse, they're simply harvesting and providing email addresses. If they were legit, does your company seriously think that unsolicited emails will get them new sales?

matt has a problem

The sheer level of buzzwords in that email should be more than enough to prove it's a sham.

DrFrylock

E-mail appending is this:

You're a businesss with a customer list that has names, addresses, and phone numbers. You provide this list to an "e-mail appending service" who has a database with zillions of shadily-harvested names and matched e-mail addresses. Or worse, they just look for any "John Smith" for whom they have an email address and tack it on to the record. They then give you back your list with e-mails appended. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they had a fine-print clause that let them keep a copy of your customer list for their own purposes as well.

AtomBomb

Thanks guys. Here's what I sent my boss, if you're curious:

Good morning,

In my opinion, services like this are a bad idea. They offer to match your customer’s names (which you know) to their email addresses (which you do not know). This process is notoriously bad. Even when boasting this company could only claim “match rates that can reach 40%”. Best case scenario is you’re sending out 60% spam. Reality is more like 99%. I did a search for email addresses linked to <my boss's name> and was easily able to find 20, none of which are you (<my boss's name> the butterfly photographer was my favorite).

Besides being inefficient, this process requires you to give up your confidential customer data. There is nothing stopping ePostDirect from selling our list to someone like <a national competitor> so that they could send advertising to our customers.

Summary: If ePostDirect could do what they claim the offer would be tempting. The fact is that they can’t. Coupled with the shady business practices of the email appending industry, I feel that this is not something we want to get involved in.

Szechuanosaurus

Well done. A much easier way to append your customer's email addresses to your contacts list is to call them and say, 'Hey, it's Bob from Neato Inc. We were going through our records and noticed we didn't have your email address on file. We understand if you don't want us to have it, but as we've done business in the past it'd sure be useful if we could add it to your record so that we can let you know of anything that might interest you in the future. Of course, you know us and we don't intend to pass your details on to anyone else, this is purely for our own records.' You could even pretext the call with general inquiries as to how their business was going, do they have any projects in the pipeline that they might be needing you for etc. (tailored depending on what your business is) which may also result in repeat business or at least leads.

This is the difference between spam and useful b2b emailing and the difference between cold calls and courtesy calls. One is a damned nuisance and a blight, the other is professional and ethical business practice.