I remember when I received my first piece of spam. 

I was incensed. Outraged. And I protested – to the sender, to my ISP, to the company that sent the mail – to everybody I could think of. And of course it dies absolutely no good. Because, believe it or not, spam actually works. Sort of. It’s a numbers game. Send out a million pieces of unsolicited crap, and some idiot, somewhere will respond. Since it cost you all of about a buck ninety-five to send it, get a couple of dozen people to respond, and you’re makin’ some real money. Who cares that you have essentially killed a valuable tool for communications and marketing.

Of course, spam begat spam filters. Which kinda sorta worked, in the same way that locking a door just made criminals more determined. Every time you buy a better lock, the crooks keep advancing their knowledge of lock picking, and the cycle starts anew. 

Lately, I’ve discovered that my biggest problem in dealing with spam was…Microsoft Exchange Server. (Who would have thought that Microsoft would make a piece of software that would cause me problems?) It seems that Microsoft does little to help out on the spam problem – that’s an add-on. And nobody (apparently) makes one that can keep me from having to devote countless hours, resources, and money to keep the Exchange server running. 

So I ditched it. I discovered that Google offers hosted email. You simply sign up, redirect your MX records to Google, and access your email through the Google server. Oh, and did I mention that the service is FREE, for up to 100 email accounts?

The big deal here is that Google has the best spam filters I’ve found. I get maybe – MAYBE – one or two messages per day that I have to delete myself. By comparison, I get close to 200 pieces of spam in the junk mail box each day. That saves me time – time that I don’t have to spend dealing with it. And the Google folks also do a bang-up job scanning attachments, and preventing email from becoming a superhighway for computer virus attacks. In fact, they screen messages and don’t even allow the ones with suspicious attachments into your mailbox. 

So what’s the net-net for you? First of all, if you’re considering buying some mailing list and mounting a marketing campaign – forget it (Unless, of course, you’re a purveyor of little blue pills, mortgage refinancing, or work as an obscure administration official in Nigeria). Unless you’re using a list of people who actually signed up for and WANT to receive email from you, you’re wasting your time – and theirs. If you have a spam problem, get your IT guys to look into Google hosting your mail. And if you want to find a way to market successfully to your customers, stop trying the “easy way” (like bulk emails) and start thinking about treating them as a valuable asset that you respect, with a relationship you want to nurture.