Oct27
spam, 3rd-party lists
Emails Like This Make People Like Me Opt Out From Your List
Let me start with a rhetorical question. If you saw this email, would you consider it spam?
Well, if you’re anything like me, you thought it was spam and opted out immediately. There’s nothing here that screams “legitimacy”, even if it actually is a legit message (which this is).
And as you can see, even with the images “on” it still doesn’t do much to defend itself.
Another telling reason why I thought this was spam is because I never opted in to ever receive emails from Nation’s Restaurant News. It was most likely because I accidentally opted into a partner network of email lists. Shame on me for not paying better attention.
I think it would be wise if all 3rd-party emails had a disclaimer above the fold, warning the user that the email they’re receiving may not be of interest to them. This verbiage would also have a prevalent opt out link next to it.
Another thing I’d like to note is that the email wasn’t from Nation’s Restaurant News, it was from Ellen Koteff. Ellen, I don’t know you and I surely don’t want emails from you. If the email is from a company, it should be FROM the company. No excuses.
Posted by Bryan Quilty on Oct. 27, 2009