As a small business owner, many people don’t like either. But when you are a small business don’t you do some cold calls. I know I had to when we started an advertising/coupon magazine in Rochester, MN. We had no relationships but we knew owners through our research would like this alternative to what they were doing. We took 3 weeks and passed out a ton of drop of materials that were full color and stood out. We then “Cold Called” them to let them know that we are in Town and gave them a superior product at a lesser cost and results we had in other cities were sure to follow here. We also then since we had picked up their business cards, got their email and did an email campaign for a bit to let them know… Do you all think that both of these methods are spam? Inquiring minds would like to know. We did not do any networking events, which I think we should have. My partner has been a business owner for over 35 years and was a former client of mine. So I never thought of questioning his methods.

@prestonodenbrett
Cold calling is a regular business practice for many businesses.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it unless the recipient of the call asks you to stop calling and you don’t.

Email is tricky business when it comes to spam.  It is ok to contact people via email but you HAVE to follow the CAN-SPAM guidelines.  According to the CAN-SPAM act it depends on the primary purpose of the email, there are 3 different types of information.
From the FTC site on CAN-SPAM - http://business.ftc.gov/

• Commercial content – which advertises or promotes a commercial product or service, including content on a website operated for a commercial purpose;
• Transactional or relationship content – which facilitates an already agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer about an ongoing transaction; and
• Other content – which is neither commercial nor transactional or relationship.

@prestonodenbrett You’ve gotten some realistic answers here. I personally do not send email unless someone opts in. That includes networking contacts–I always ask if I might add them to my email list. And at trade shows or similiar events, my “drop your card” here explicitly states they are signing up for my email list. Then I use a qualified email systems that automagically includes my required information to send out any emails that are not personal connections.

While I don’t necessarily like getting phone calls, B2B calls are a fact of life. I prefer calls that are more “invitation based” such as calling to invite a business to an event they might be interested in attending. But specific vendor categories are not necessarily unwelcome, but if I don’t return the call because I know I have zero interest, it is annoying to get repeated calls.

Now, I really have a pet peeve and its Text Message spam. HATE IT. To me, it is so intrusive. I actually got a number from my dentist, who also sends an email with the identical message. I am almost thinking of changing dentists…seriously.

I was at an event this week and heard a study (female respondents) where about 80% said Direct Mail was OK, 58% said email marketing was OK, and 0% said text messages were OK. The reason was it is too intrusive.

Personally, I only text with family and closest friends and don’t need more clutter in my life.

@annfurnivall Ann, other people might not think the same.

Regardless of preference, it’s not considered spam as long as the guidelines are followed.  I’m not saying that it should be done that way, nor do I advise my clients to do so, however, the guidelines are pretty clear as to what is considered spam and what is not.

Email marketing service companies do have tighter restrictions on what they consider spam because spam reports effect both your account (ISPs can stop you from sending email to their customers) and the email marketing company, where they could be blocked from the ISP as well.

Also, so there is no confusion.  Email marketing services such as aweber, constant contact, mailchimp, etc. don’t suspend your account for one spammed email.  It’s based off ratio which takes into consideration the number of emails sent and number of spam reports.  The typical acceptance amount is 1 spam report for every 1000 emails you send.  I’d hate for anyone to read the above statement and be afraid to send out emails. =)  

@annfurnivall

I feel the same way although I really don’t get a lot of cold calls.  Maybe once every few days.  I have done cold calling for a previous advertising agency I worked for and it was a really effective strategy and although some people would just say “not interested”, I had thousands of people talk to me and purchase advertising for their businesses.  I guess it really depends on the cold caller (and the demeanor of the recipient of the phone call), I have always had a genuine desire to help people grow their businesses and am super inspired by their passion for what they do, so conversation was easy.

I just recently bought some branded pens which I’m thrilled about from a cold call. =)