Unthinking marketing managers dump their solicitations into services like "Deals4Recruiters," the obnoxious spam delivery enterprise that claims to have 500,000 HR Professionals in their database. Apparently, about 100 of them work for us. Spamming to a list that was created by merging a number of bad lists and spidering the rest will result in heavy and rapid brand erosion. Users of the service should understand that the media people who receive the spam generated by the service develop a very low opinion of the service contained in the spam. Marketers who use this tool are getting today's leads at the expense of tomorrow's reputation.

There is a new, professional level tool available.

Called HRMarketer, the service is the first HR marketplace tool for marketers. It combines rigorously updated press lists, editorial calendars, event calendars and searchable press releases into a genuine weapon for marketing in our industry. While the quick results bandits are destroying their own reputations with spam to unverified email addresses,  HRMarketer allows a more serious company to develop a detailed plan to position the company in the eyes of the editorial community that ultimately determines fate.

We've spent some time evaluating the product and believe that it will save money and improve results for marketing departments in the industry. Their customer service people helpfully suggested that we narrow the distribution list for a press release in order to save our brand integrity. The company clearly stands for effectiveness over volume. Try it out (and stop ruining your reputation with spam).

-John Sumser