Stupid Idiot Watch: eROI Blogger Slimes Magilla

Marketing services provider eROI’s vice president of sales and strategy and official blogger, Dylan Boyd, published an ignorant, professionally insulting post about me on TheEmailWars.com that needs to be addressed.

In the post headlined, “If Ken Can Do It… Should We,” Boyd falsely accused me of renting out Magilla Marketing’s list to an e-mail service provider and sending him a non-targeted, irrelevant ad.

Indeed, if I had sold Magilla Marketing’s list to an advertiser, it would be a reprehensible act on my part—especially since it’s not my list. It’s my publisher Penton Media’s list.

Moreover, Penton didn’t rent it out either. Penton sent an e-mail on behalf of an e-mail service provider to its own list—a permission-based list of e-mail marketing executives. No data changed hands. The campaign was perfectly legitimate. And ads don’t get much more relevant to Magilla Marketing’s audience than the one that led Boyd to falsely accuse me.

So I responded in a comment:

“First, I don’t control my publisher’s e-mail marketing practices.

“But as far as I’m concerned there was nothing wrong with that e-mail.

“I have never once written that sending advertising mail to your own permission-based list on behalf of a third party is wrong. Why? Because it isn’t.

“I don’t work for free.

“That ad was perfectly targeted for my readership.

“You’re in the e-mail business. You subscribe to an e-mail trade publication. And you’re surprised you’re getting e-mail from Magilla Marketing on behalf of e-mail service providers.

“Are you kidding with this?”

One would think at that point Boyd would back off and apologize for accusing me of doing something I didn’t do.

But then, one would be wrong. Rather than own up to his mistake, he changed the subject:

“What I think is that if you of all people cannot segment your list for a 3rd party list rental from an ESP from sending to know email addresses of another ESP, you have wasted the ‘clients’ money and deserve the criticism,” he wrote.

“Pull this list and think about suppressing domains that are not relevant like exact target, silverpop, bronto. emma, etc or you are just throwing the money spent out the window without an ROI for your 3rd party advertiser.”

I decided to give it one more shot.

“Has it ever occurred to you that other ESPs may want that ad for competitive analysis?” I wrote in my second comment.

“Good direct marketers want as many competitive ads as they can get. It helps them learn what their competitors believe is working. Plus it gives them ideas. I’ve been one. I know what I’m talking about here.

“And I, of all people, cannot segment my list. It’s not my list. It’s Penton’s list.

“Moreover, while Penton’s not perfect, that campaign went against nothing I’ve ever preached against.

“You subscribed to Magilla Marketing.

“You’re in the industry.

“You’re a relevant target for that ad.

“Also, the client pays the same whether Penton makes the effort to suppress the minuscule number of ESP domains out or not. Your wasting-money argument is ludicrous.”

And Boyd wasn’t done either.

“Thanks Ken.

“Just as you have opinions, I do as well. And I choose to post them here on my blog.

“I really I would not care to see what other ESPs are thinking of my offers. Why, they will not convert. If they spend that much time worrying about my pricing, discount, offer strategy and do not focus on their strengths then they are going to lose the battle.

“Hell and all of them are subscribed to our resource center and own newsletter anyway. It is entertaining to look sometimes, but our focus is on our customers and new clients not on the comp.

“As a marketer you should look at what is going to help you drive conversion. Last I checked I am not buying ESP services. Relevance is key and segmentation is everything in email, and this goes double for a list rental, sponsorship or anything else you want to call it.

“I realize you do not have much control over how your list is used and it is handled by the publication, but it has your name all over it and to me that could be a reputation killer.”

What, is English this guy’s second language? I had just explained I have no control over this publication’s list. Not “not much” control. No control. As in “none.” Could I have been any clearer?

And if Boyd is to be believed, he does no competitive analysis at eROI.

Apparently he doesn’t understand that when a competitor engages in a marketing tactic repeatedly, it means they’ve determined it works.

Stealing ideas is one of direct marketing’s oldest practices. It’s one shortcut to crafting more effective campaigns.

Boyd’s competitors certainly understand the concept. That’s why they all subscribe to eROI’s resource center. At least now they know they can post their ’09 marketing plans online and Boyd’s never going to see them. Heck, they can e-mail them to him and he’ll never see them.

And the only threat to my reputation in this nonsense is Boyd’s breathtakingly ignorant, snide post.

This is not a case of two guys having a legitimate, friendly difference of opinion. This is a case of a blogger who tried to smear my professional reputation by accusing me of committing a potentially career-destroying act I didn’t commit. Then he tried to smear my employer by claiming it did something wrong when it didn’t.

And then when irrefutably called out on his irresponsible, contemptible post, rather than apologize for wrongly smearing me and my employer, he became even more smug.

Even worse, he had the audacity to lecture me.

Either Boyd is too dense to realize when he’s wrong, or he’s too immature to admit it. Take your pick.