Direct Marketers Not Getting Direct Marketing

There's a very good comment on my yesterday's article on marketers not getting RSS marketing at the Jeff Barr blog:

"problem with rod?s argument. the direct marketing world didn?t adopt its own lessons. at least RSS is permission based."
Comment by james governor

James, as I responded on Jeff's blog, there are several answers to your comment:

1. Smart e-mailers have learned permission marketing long ago. The same goes for direct mail. The age-old paradigm in direct marketing still stands ?> your list is your most valuable asset. Permission based of course.

2. But you are correct, there are many many rotten apples out there that do not adhere to DM best practices ? and hurt both the market, the consumer and the DM industry.

3. Of course, several DM tools, such as DRTV, are still intrussive. But so is every form of advertising, more or less. The simple problem is you can't grow your business quickly without a first point of contact with the consumer, and that's what advertising does for you. Not true for all businesses, but not every business in the world can be a "Purple Cow", as Seth Godin would put it.

But in essence, permission marketing has been a DM best practice for decades, perhaps even centuries. It's just that some people always like to cut corners. But that's not a DM issue, but a people issue.

Another good comment at the Search Engine Guide.

Jennifer is right. Applying DM best practices to RSS marketing is common sense. One just has to wonder why this is so often forgoten when new channels are being established as marketing tools.