Neil Schwartzman from ReturnPath asks, “Is Your Email an Invited Guest or a Drunken Frat-boy?”

“Now, when an invited guest comes into my home, and I suspect yours as well, they must ring the doorbell, be polite on their way in and during their visit, perhaps bring me a bottle of wine or other consideration, and thank me upon departure…Do you act like a honored guest, or a drunken frat-boy who shows up for 

the fifth time this week with a keg at 1 a.m., pounds on the door, breaking in through a window, vomiting on the couch, and finally passing out on the kitchen floor, and refusing to leave when roused?”

That’s the difference between permission email marketing, and “I-have-a-right-to-email-them” marketing.

If you request permission, send a proper welcome email message (with gift), and send relevant, expected emails to your subscribers, you’re an invited guest.

If you tell your sales team, “Okay, we’re blasting out an email campaign tomorrow, so everybody export your Outlook address books and CRMs and send me your batch of prospects asap,” you are that drunken frat boy.