The Fastest Way to Marketing Fail

I’m a pretty easy going guy. I usually give people the benefit of the doubt, it takes quite a bit to get me riled up, and I generally try to look at every situation logically (at least for a bit) before looking at it emotionally.

There is, however, one thing that really ticks me off.

Just because I gave you my business card, it DOES NOT mean I’m signing up for your email marketing newsletter!

The number of times this has happened to me is just mind boggling. You will not find a faster way to alienate me from you, and your company.

If I give you my business card, it’s because I hop that at some point in the future it will be useful for you to reach out to me. I can guarantee you that if that day comes AFTER you’ve used my business card to boost the number of people your marketing spam goes out to, I will probably not be to receptive.

In this day and age, this kind of behavior can quickly damage your brand if people decide to speak out against you on one of the many platforms out there (Twitter/Facebook, etc). Why risk it just for another “subscriber” on your email list?