Junk Mails (Again)

[Photo via darkest-star]

I talked about my annoyance toward fake personal junk mails, but I actually hate junk mails in general.

Junk mails are very resource intensive. In the US alone, every year 100 million trees are harvested to make them, and 44% of the time they go straight into trash (source: ForestEthics). This is equivalent to putting an additional 6 million cars on the road (based on the 17 trees per car figure, perhaps an underestimate). It’s ridiculous that by having a mailbox, we involuntarily become part of their wasteful marketing practice.

The solution for most people is actually quite simple according to the Red Dot Campaign. Just put up a sign that says “No Junk Mail”, and you can block most of them (in Canada). I wonder why people aren’t doing it if it’s so simple? My guess is that people are either not aware of this option or not enthusiastic to act on it. After all, sometimes coupons for deliveries do come in handy. You can buy stickers from Red Dot Campaign’s website or print them yourself, but I doubt people would do so unless they are as pissed as I am (pissed enough to blog about it).

I wonder if environmental groups have considered sending out those “NO JUNK MAIL” stickers? Yes, send it out like junk mails. Besides the ideological conflict and the one-time cost, I don’t see why not. I think it will be very effective because it’s simple and effortless for recipients. Just stick it on your mailbox and you are good to go.

I don’t know for sure, but maybe this will work. It could be tested first in one neighborhood, and then monitor the adoption rate a few days later.

If you really can’t live without those delivery coupons, I’m sure when enough people opt-out, they’ll find other ways to give you discounts.

Personally, I’m still trying to catch our postie in the morning because I live in an apartment building with mail slots (shown in my previous post), and I can’t find a spot to show the sticker. I’ll report back.

Stop Sending Those Fake Personal Junk Mails!

I hate getting junk mails, especially those fake personal junk mails.

They usually use handwriting typography, but it’s pretty easy to tell that they are not actually hand written. I understand that they want to make it more “personal”, but you can’t fake a personal touch. They are completely incompatible. Sometimes I even feel insulted as they try to fool me this way. (Also applies to Twitter’s automatic direct messages, and others alike.)

On the other hand, if you run a local business, it makes sense to invest in genuine personal invitations (note that if you make it personal, it becomes an invitation, not unsolicited junk mail). If I ever get a handwritten invitation, I would be 100 times more responsive to the message.

Maybe a handwritten mail is too much to ask (or it might look, but at least sign it for real? It doesn’t take that much time. If you are too busy, you can scribble. In fact, you can just let someone else do it. Who knows what your signature looks like?

The point is to show that your message comes from a human being instead of a Xerox machine. It’s so easy to standout this way, but I have yet to receive anything like it.

Spamalytics: A Study on Spam Conversion Rate

[Photo via david ॐ]

Spam hardly get to my inbox anymore, but in the early days they were VERY annoying. I still remember having to sort through dozens of emails everyday only to find 2 chain letters (remember those?? I wonder if I could make a chain blog post.. spread this link or you will not get internet connection for one week!!). Anyways, some bright CS students from Berkley actually did a study on spam email’s conversion rates. In conclusion, of the 350 million spams they observed, only 28 resulted in sales, so the conversion rate is under 0.00001%.

[crazy high number of junk mail] x [crazy low conversion rate] = [a few crazy people buying] => [profit]

The result is not really that surprising. The fact that they are still sending out spams means they make money out of it. I am nonetheless very curious who these buyers are..

Interesting read. [Spamalytics: An Empirical Analysis of Spam Marketing Conversion via Karl Long]