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AuthorITies: Internet Zone

September 13, 1999

Guidelines For Curbing Industry Spam
(A friendly guide for folks sending unsolicited messages via electronic mail)

By Jason Levitt

If you read my InternetView column in the September 6th issue of InformationWeek magazine, you know that I get a lot of spam--"industry" spam, to be more precise. What is industry spam?

Here's the simple definition:
in*dus*try spam n. 1. Mistargeted press releases that annoyingly clog up an E-mail in-box.

A more precise definition would be:
in*dus*try spam n. 1. Mistargeted press releases that annoyingly clog up an E-mail in-box. 2. Usually unsolicited, generally well-intentioned, but mistargeted or poorly designed E-mail that is sent by PR agencies and vendors to media representatives, customers, and others.

Two Reasons For Industry Spam
Industry spam is the result of two problems. The first problem is mistargeted E-mail. Despite their best efforts at figuring out who should receive a press release, PR agencies end up sending their press releases to lots of folks who don't want or need them. They've simply mistargeted their E-mail. Targeting E-mail is difficult. At best, it's the totally manual, painstaking process of contacting each potential recipient and finding out (if you can reach them) whether he or she wants to receive a press release. At worst, it's completely automated, yet likely to target many recipients who have no interest whatsoever in the E-mail. In this form, the E-mail is no better than common spam--unsolicited, junk E-mail.

The second problem is poor formatting. An E-mail message with a poorly written subject line is likely to get trashed immediately by the recipient, even if the contents might have been of interest. Likewise, I know many media folks who won't even bother with an E-mail message if it's sent as an attachment, such as a Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat document. (Think of the lessons learned from the Melissa Virus.) What form should E-mail take? If you managed to contact the recipient, you may know. As a general rule, though, E-mail should be sent as plain text.

The Rules
While it would be nice to have a set of rules (a standard?) for sending out press releases to journalists and others, the fact is that every recipient has different preferences. Some don't like E-mail at all and would rather have phone calls or hard copy. Others might like only hard copy. The guidelines I provide in this column represent my views. I think they are generally applicable, though, and will, overall, help decrease the amount of industry spam.

Who's to blame for industry spam? No one, and everyone. Admittedly, PR agencies faced with distributing press releases have a tough time figuring out who should receive them. If they looked at my Media Map entry, for example, they'd see that I prefer to receive press releases via E-mail, but the description of my beat is broad enough that many different types of software and hardware announcements might apply. And, if you've tried to contact me by telephone, you know how hard that can be. Faced with a tight deadline for getting the word out to the world about a new product, many PR agencies simply don't have the staff necessary to contact each potential recipient and find out if they want to receive a piece of news. In that case, following the formatting guidelines will still make life easier for the recipient.

Help Stop Industry Spam Guidelines v1.3**
    Four Easy Steps to help eliminate industry spam:

  1. Find out how a member of the press wants to receive press releases. Some want only hard copy; others may prefer a phone call. If they don't want E-mail, don't send them any.

  2. Do not blindly add a member of the press to an E-mail distribution list without first checking either the masthead of his publication or one of the media listing services to see whether he would legitimately have an interest in the product or topic.

  3. Confirm attendance at trade shows before sending meeting notices or other trade show-specific press releases. Just the fact that a member of the press appears on a list of press members who attended the conference in the past is not an excuse.

  4. Okay, so you sent it anyway--make sure that every press release prominently displays the information necessary to easily get removed from your mailing list.

    Format Guidelines For Email Press Releases
  • Don't send attachments. Attachments often get garbled. They can add significant size to the message so that they take longer to download and read. They're just a pain.

  • Don't use HTML or styled text. Most modern E-mail programs will let you send HTML-encoded text or text with style information--more opportunities for garbled messages. Send plain text only. If you want to use a formatted document (e.g. MS Word) or HTML, include links to the appropriate Web site for retrieval.

  • Have a useful subject header. The header is the first thing the message recipient sees, so having something useful and concise can get them thinking in the right mode. Also, having a useful subject header makes it easier to find stored E-mail.
    • These Subject headers are poorly worded: Subject: Greetings From Comdex! (A product announcement) Subject: Hot Swap (Another product announcement) Subject: You Are Invited.... (...to a sneak preview of some technology)
    • These Subject headers are O.K.: Subject: Industry Leaders Demonstrate Instant Messaging Interoperability Subject: Xerox Licenses IPNet Solutions eCommerce Software Subject: BusinessWeek's Digital Economy Conference
    • A good basic format for Subject headers: Subject/Verb/Object. Example: Netscape introduces Navigator 4.5

The guidelines above can be applied to any industry, not just the media. The important thing to keep in mind is that E-mail is not just a technology, it's a communications tool. Whether you're using E-mail to communicate with coworkers, customers, or business partners, messages have be to concise, clear, and appropriately targeted to be effective. Otherwise, they end up as just one more piece of digital clutter.

**I originally presented version 1.0 of these guidelines at a small media breakfast in the fall of 1998.


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