I Love Spam

I was stationed in Guam and Hawaii for a combined 8+ years. In that time I grew to love the island life and as many of you might guess, there are some significant differences.

One of them is Spam.

There’s history to it, but the food product Spam enjoys an extreme popularity in the pacific islands and has made it into many dishes that you normally wouldn’t expect it to when living here in Tucson.

Spam is so popular in Guam and Hawaii that it is even included on the menu in McDonalds. In the grocery stores, the spam shelves are packed with variety of spam (flavors) that I never expected. It is simply a staple.

I’ve grown to love that kind of Spam.

Another kind of spam showed up in my email spam folder that I found amusing and thought I’d share. It illustrates exactly what I talk about when I flame on the lead generation side of the solar industry...

This spicy gem came from “S M Nasim Jafor Peish” with an email address that came from a popular free ‘G’ named email service (not even an @ domain…)

Subj: “LEADS”

Note the use of ALL CAPS… lol

Body:

“Dear Sir,

 

I hope this message finds you well. Our agency specializes in generating leads for businesses like yours, without any upfront payment required. We understand that you may receive many similar messages, but we believe we can demonstrate our abilities before you invest anything.

 

Our clients in Sydney, Brisbane, California, Arizona, and Oregon have benefited from our lead generation services at a cost-effective rate of $15-$17 in advertising spend.

 

We would love the opportunity to add your company to our portfolio and help you get more appointments, consultations, or free quotes, depending on your primary touch point.

 

Please let us know if you're interested in learning more, and we'll be happy to schedule a convenient appointment.”

Now, on the surface, I don’t bemoan the honest efforts of legitimate businesses to advertise and spread the good word about their offers and products. In fact, I think it is quite necessary but…

The irony writes itself on this one…

A company proclaiming to be able to generate leads using an essentially anonymous and non-professional email address spamming an offer with lofty claims about their world wide clientele and not bothering to even sign off or add contact information…

While I am not sure what this one is really doing, I’ll never reply to a spam email like this- and it makes me wonder where they get their leads from? If they are spamming me to gain me as a ‘client’, what are they willing to do to get a ‘lead’?

My suspicion is there is no limit to the depravity they would go through just to get the ‘data’. Buy it, scrape it with bots, hack it, paid ads to bait and switch capture pages, reselling same info multiple times, all of it is on the table here…

The simple truth is the online world of advertising is infected with these ‘lead gen’ outfits. Sad, but true.

One of the things we can do to guard against these clowns is to not use their lead gen websites. Sure, some of those lead gen websites are ‘good’ and ‘honest’ but the majority of them are like the clowns who sent this spam. It is easier to just avoid them all together…

If you are looking into solar for your home, my upcoming book can help. Click here to get on the notification list for Tucson Solar Insider Desk Guide for Buying Solar. I think you’ll be glad you did (biased opinion, for sure…)

Be Good!

Curtis