<\/p>\n\n
A New Year’s Resolution for Marketers Who Swear They \u201cDon\u2019t Have a Problem\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n If you had told 21-year-old me\u00a0I’d\u00a0spend my\u00a0middle-aged\u00a0winter breaks\u00a0arguing on the internet about the ethics of data brokering instead of, say, having hobbies, sleeping, or making increasingly weird cookies, I\u00a0would\u2019ve\u00a0laughed until I coughed on my Sparks (it’s\u00a0energy!\u00a0It’s\u00a0alcohol!\u00a0It’s\u00a0DISGUSTING). Yet here we are, another holiday season, another digital shouting match about who gets to call whom „unethical“ for sending email to people who did not ask for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n Some folks in the email community (correctly, if not entirely helpfully) pointed out that many of our own employers dabble in the very practices we shame other senders for. And listen\u2026 I get it.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0awkward to condemn cold outreach when you know\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a perfectly good corporate brochure somewhere bragging about your company\u2019s \u201cmarket intelligence tools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n But my stance \u2014 way up here on\u00a0this\u00a0high horse\u2014 is simple:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n If your business model depends on\u00a0purchased\u00a0or scraped data to be\u00a0viable,\u00a0maybe the\u00a0business model deserves to perish.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n On the\u00a0flip side, if you\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0retrain your organization away from unsolicited outreach and toward sustainable, consent-based practices? Congratulations.\u00a0You\u2019re\u00a0already doing Deliverability Dry January. (We have weird cookies. And badges!)\u00a0This is\u00a0the\u00a0energy\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0bringing into 2026:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n Cold Dry Global January\u00a0(the\u00a0grownup\u00a0alternative to a Wet Hot American Summer)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n It\u2019s\u00a0the\u00a0corporate cleanse no one asked\u00a0for,\u00a0but everyone desperately\u00a0needs.\u00a0Welcome to the intervention. From\u00a0rock\u00a0bottom, you can only go up!\u00a0<\/p>\n\r\n