Does It Matter If Your Email Is Legitimate?

Photo by Rakka

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

There’s a term bandied about the email marketing world that needs to die.

In fact, it’s arguably already dead. Yet it hangs on, and nobody seems to so much as raise an eyebrow when it gets dropped into conversation.

What is it?

Legitimate.

Don’t believe me?

Nah, you probably don’t. Because hey, your emails are legitimate, right? It’s all those phishing, pill-pushing, pump-and-dumping, porno pimping shysters whose emails are illegitimate.

It’s so very black and white. Except when it’s not.

I got a real earful of the term “legitimate” at an email conference recently, and it struck me that in the “legitimate” email marketing industry, this term is well on its way to being regarded the way that the phrase “opt-in” is.

What I mean is, the term carries no meaning. Its presence or absence neither adds nor removes credibility. Email marketers use the term because we feel we have to – but it’s not like anyone actually thinks you’re more or less legitimate for having said it.

Multiple Meanings

Part of the problem that nobody seems to recognize is, the word means different things in different contexts, and to different people.

Heck, let’s not even get into the different entities in the email world who might interpret “legitimate” differently just yet. Let’s start with a few of our friend Mr. Webster’s definitions:

Legitimate: (1) being exactly as purposed: neither spurious nor false; (2) accordant with law or with established legal forms and requirements; (3) conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards. (source: merriam-webster.com)

Whoa! Not exactly simple, eh? I mean, let’s put these into somewhat email-related terms:

1. Being exactly as purposed: neither spurious nor false. Wait… whose “purpose” are we going with? The sender’s? That doesn’t seem useful for our purposes. Maybe the key here is “spurious” – in other words, forged. OK, so emails that are forged are not legitimate. Fine.
2. Accordant with law or with established legal forms and requirements. OK, so if my email is CAN-SPAM compliant, it’s legitimate. That sound cool to all you email marketers out there? (For those of you not in the know, spamming is legal under CAN-SPAM. Seriously. Look it up. But how many of us would consider spam to be “legitimate” email?)
3. Conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards. Now we’re talking. So to be legitimate, your email must conform to the recognized principles and accepted rules and standards of… AOL? MAPS? RFC 2822? Go on, tell me, I’ll wait.

Now, when the dictionary gets you 3 distinct definitions and creates that much confusion, imagine how much more fun it gets when we start talking about how multiple parties (each with unique motives and interests) define “legitimate.”

What Groups Use This Term?

Some of the relevant entities who may define “legitimate” differently:

1. Email marketers (and we’re unlikely to all define it the same way)
2. Email service providers
3. ISPs
4. Recipients

We could add more groups to this list, but this is a good short list to illustrate the ridiculousness of trying to use the word “legitimate” to describe your emails.

Even if all those groups started with the Webster’s definition (which is unlikely anyway), each one is going to refine the meaning to fit their needs. By the time you get any 2 of them talking (God forbid you get 3 or more of them talking), the term hinders clear communication more than it helps it.

So Why Do We Use It?

An assumption that everyone else defines it the way we do? Or maybe a desire to rally around a word that distinguishes all of us from the worst that email has to offer? Or just habit?

Beats me. All I know is, as best I can, I’m ditching the word until someone can show me why it’s worth using.

I don’t suppose in the grand scheme of things this will change much, but hey – I’m a former language guy. This stuff matters to me. And if you’ve ever cared about words like “email blast” or “opt-in” or “spam,” maybe it’ll matter to you, too.

Your Thoughts?

Is this worth getting riled up over? Or are such semantics pointless?

How do you use “legitimate” (if you do) when discussing email? How do you see others using it? Is there a Grand Unified Theory Definition of “legitimate” that I’m unaware of? Enlighten me!

Just for fun: here’s a JPEG of my mindmap for this article. It goes into some more details/areas that I didn’t touch on here, partly because this post is plenty long as-is.