When is the DMA Going to Get It Right?

When is the DMA going to get their internal processes straightened out!

The kings of direct marketing are still fumbling internally when it comes to their own interactive direct marketing efforts. Case in point, a few minutes ago I received an invitation from the DMA to join their DMCNY networking event.

Nice looking email and it was sent out using Exact Target, a very good ESP. So what is wrong?

When I went to register in the email it said my user name was SBoysen. Now, a lot of people misspell my name, but I’ve never seen it that far off. Suspicious, I looked at the Can-Spam footer. It says it was sent to [email protected] a domain I’ll keep to myself. Certain not my email address. Better yet, I can go into Mr. Boysen’s account and change all his preferences. The one thing I cannot do is unsubscribe to the email. I can unsubscribe Mr. Boysen, however.

I wonder what it will finally take for the DMA to take their email marketing efforts seriously enough to put the time and money into fixing them. When an outfit like Exact Target can’t help them, how bad is it?