Ending Spam? Why Marketers must care…
December 12, 2007 – 11:34 am
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Loading ...Thanks to relatively low cost, focused messaging, and a variety of other factors, email is seen by marketers as the second most effective means of engaging potential customers, right behind direct mail. The problem with this idea, however, is that the overwhelming presence of Spam (digital junk mail) in the inboxes of the world’s consumers has siphoned away the power of what was once an undeniably effect marketing tool
As a chronic spam-sufferer myself, I can attest to the damage it does to my desire to open any “sell” emails, even those from businesses in which I am interested.
All of this is meant as a way of explaining why a man named Steven T. Kirsch, and his innovative approach to the challenge posed by spam, may just be the best news email marketers have heard all year…
Abeca, the spam filter invented by Kirsch, claims that it can filter out 99 percent of spam emails (far ahead of the other 6 leading spam filters), and backs that claim with a money-back guarantee (Spam’s End? Maybe, if Time Allows).
The thing that sets Kirsh’s approach to eliminating spam apart from the competition is his method of filtration. Rather than profiling the senders of spam, a complex job since spam senders often cycle through a number of different email addresses and subject lines, Abeca analyzes the unique profiles of receivers, based on the ratio of spam to legitimate emails the person receives. This is then used to generate a factor of how “spamy” an email is.
With 20,000 users, the accuracy rate of Abeca is a whopping 99.8 percent, better by far than the six leading spam filters according to a study by Opus One. As Abeca rises in popularity and use, it improves its algorithms based on the increasing pool of profiles to draw on. Kirsch estimates the software could be 100 times more accurate as more and more people adopt it.
It’s a project all marketers should applaud. By eliminating, or at least drastically reducing, the amount of spam in an individual’s mailbox, Abeca and filters like it reduce customer frustration and time wasted on email.
Once customers no longer see answering email as a chore, all of the benefits of email marketing become infinitely more powerful. Email becomes the vehicle for delivering a controlled message, getting face time with consumers when they are not distracted by other entertainment media (newspapers, magazine, or websites), and generating a real connection with customers who have shown genuine interest in your company.
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