These beta invite schemes are really becoming sleazy. They had already encouraged and promoted elitism, but now they are sinking to an even deeper low: marketing without advance disclosure to people who signed up for beta invites.

Some days I have to remind myself why I bother signing up for them. And while it isn’t really spam since you signed up approving the email (see ink above) it feels a lot like spam. Am I masochist or what? Why?

1) because not every beta invite programs treats your email address like a crack whore
2) because we can still hit delete and ignore
3) because I look forward to finding and sharing new/different/unique/updated products and services that save time and increase productivity or just make life more enjoyable

Getting in early on something is the golden time to be heard and have the greatest chance of making a difference. As products/services grow, they, generally speaking, become harder to penetrate to the people who matter. This is one area that I think blogs have helped improve, but if you want to get close to the metal and talk to the people behind a company and help shape a product/service, the best time is usually in the early days.

A trend that Google helped popularize with Gmail invites spawned a whole bunch of marketing copycats. When you signed up for the Gmail invite they didn’t market you during the process, they just send the freaking invite. Google claimed this wasn’t a marketing practice, it was because they didn’t have enough servers. Some people believed this, but I didn’t, especially when at around the same time they were offering the Wikipedia webspace.

Unfortunately, some others are using this beta invite period as a recruiting and marketing campaign. Those who are doing this with their web pooh point oh business, please stop. Think about what people are actually committing to when they give you an email address: an invite. That’s all they want. An invite. Not spam.

An invite request is not an invitation for bragging about what we can’t see
My least favorite private beta invite request scenario is getting email telling us when we will receive the invite, and then using the time to pitch us about how great the product is that we can’t see yet. Even worse is when the email goes on to tell us what others have thought about the site/service we can’t see. People I know and publications I read. The infamous they got to look, but you can’t, neener, neener pitch.

It’s like saying: hey, you aren’t good enough to check this out, you aren’t part of the club elite, but here is what the club elite is saying. And hey, here are a few top secret screenshots!

If you do that to me on a beta invite list, my interest in your product/service just went from interested to annoyed. Use your blog to tease, not the beta invite list.

The most recent to do this was Craig Fitzpatrick CEO of Devshop.com. I emailed [Fitzpatrick] him privately before writing this blog entry complaining about this very practice. I’m not going to quote from private email conversations without permission, but anybody else on their 2,700+ invite list has already seen the same message I complained about. I am not accusing devshop of spamming but I find it very ironic that the signup text reads: “Your address will only be used to send you the occasional notification. We’re no spammers.”

Just as I told Craig directly, I’m probably the only one of the 2,700+ who complained, but because people don’t speak up doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion on the subject. In Craig’s defense I will say he responded promptly to my complaint and seemed legitimately concerned.

Now, it’s your turn to declare my general complaint about this beta invite marketing strategy as baseless, petty or warranted. Despite giving a recent example above I’m not interested in talking about any specific company or invite list but the practice itself. When you sign up for a beta invite list are you expecting to get anything besides the invite and/or possibly information about when the invitation will arrive?

Lastly, good manners suggest that an invitation is just that and it seems very boorish to complain about an invite to anything. I fully realize that and some will probably flame me for it, but please remember if nobody questions these practices then they continue and can worsen. Let’s get the conversation started and let businesses know whether or not this is an acceptable marketing path. Fire up your keyboard and comment or trackback in with your 2 1/2 rusted pennies.

My opinion is clear: if we sign up for something specific like an invite to check out your beta, just send us what you promised when it is ready. Send us only what you promised and don’t try to market us or add to some other list or squeeze in some other marketing messages unless you clearly disclose this will be happening before we subscribe. And I don’t understand marketing the same thing to someone who is already signed up to check it out. Is the company marketing without our permission to remind us why we signed up?

That’s inviting them to change their mind.

• Wallop of invite only offers
• GMail invitation for Mother’s Day - win GMail invite for mom - contest here!
• There beta testers last chance for lifetime membership deal
• Google testing free email service: Gmail
• Gmail spam filter sucks too, 3 GB of spam in less than 6 months
• GMail Talk blog