Earlier in the summer, I sent a note outlining 5 reasons not to spam supporters with unsolicited emails.
The first reason I highlighted was that sending unsolicited spam is very likely a violation of the terms of service or acceptable use policy of the technology you use to send emails, whether that’s Action Network, EveryAction, NGP, Mail Chimp or any other reputable platform.
That became even more clear last week at the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh.
Toward the end of a panel I moderated on saving email from spammers and scammers, I asked Mike Liddell, a senior employee at NGP/EveryAction, if he would share how they think about spam.
Here’s what he said (listen on Twitter here):
“I’m happy to talk with folks either here or afterwards too about NGP’s policies, but as Josh alluded to, we have started cracking down a lot more on some of these issues. We actually fired a client last month, a congressional client who is running for, you know, a Democrat who is trying to get elected and we fired them off of our platform.
…
“If you upload email addresses, if you’re sending to people who are not opted-in, we will definitely block you.”
If you’re ever in a situation where you have to convince your boss or other colleagues that you shouldn’t send unsolicited spam, this unambiguous statement from one of the most prominent vendors in the space might help.