At a recent networking function I met an experienced business consultant who was actively seeking new business. Following meeting live, he invited me to connect on LinkedIn and I connected. His next action surprised and dismayed me. He put me on his email list as a subscriber WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. This is not okay.
Yes, fortunately he was smart enough to have an unsubscribe at the bottom, but honestly he never should have subscribed me to start with. That is my choice, not his.
Could he have sent me an invitation? Absolutely, and it would have made a lot more sense particularly if he’d invited me to subscribe by giving me some useful value content as that ethical bribe, otherwise known as an opt-in goody. BUT, just because you are connected to someone on LinkedIn, or someone “likes” your Facebook page, or someone is trailing you on Twitter, does not give you the right not put them on your email list. Email today is a choice, it is up to the recipient, not the sender, whose email they want to receive.
On a daily basis I get over 600 junk mails, I skim these briefly in case something worthwhile fell in like a new business contact who wasn’t familiar to my system. But I totally don’t have the time or interest in those who arbitrarily put me on their list. I find it offensive, irritating, time wasting, and makes me not want to talk with them again, the exact opposite of the reaction they want. I am not alone.
So here you have it, the 3 Fast and Easy Ways to FAIL at Email Marketing:
1. Do NOT include an unsubscribe or opt-out on every mail.
2. Put people on your list withOUT their permission, just because you connected to them on LinkedIn, they liked you on Facebook, or they follow you on Twitter.
3. Subscribe everyone you know to your ezine (electronic newsletter) even when they didn’t ask for it, aren’t part of your target market (think your colleagues), and aren’t interested.
Oh and on that last one, I have colleagues who have me on their list for absolutely no good reason. If I try to unsubscribe, they get offended not realizing that I’m not their target market. Honestly, I don’t look at my unsubscribes beyond the numbers. I feel it is a private decision if someone wants out of my community and I honor that. Sure I care, but I know that for everyone that isn’t a fit, there are plenty more that are and those are the ones I want to cater to.
I welcome your comments on this time gobbler and head banger of an issue. Talk to me in the comments here. I am listening!
I don’t apprechiate people doing that to me either. The only ones I’ve manually put on my list, are those that subscribed to my old list.
Linda,
If you use a double opt-in, the folks on your list need to re-confirm rather than be manually put in. The great part is that it makes your “list” (I prefer community) really clean and dumps those who don’t care about being there.
Hugs, Melissa
Great post Melissa! Cumby and I had talked recently about how much mail was flooding our in-box(s). I have been making an effort to unscubscibe to anything I no longer need or asked for,,,I feel lighter already. Now if I could unsubscribe from some bad habits and extra pounds that would be even better!
Hey Debbie,
I know all about needing to unsubscribe from those bad habits and extra pounds. I’m now in birthday recovery mode! LOL. You’ll get there when ready, good for you on cutting down on the email clutter.
Hugs, Melissa
THANKS Melissa for the mention – this is a big issue for me and I am busy unsubscribing to much that I did not subscribe to in the first place! I appreciate your support with this big issue and that you have been snagged in the same way – thru FB and Twitter! Referencing Debbie’s comments, yes I would love to be able to unsubscribe to those extra pounds and bad habits, just as easily! THAT is a good thought!
Hey Cumby,
Well I hope you have more success in your unsubscribing than I’m having. I’m getting 500+ a day in junk that I have to skim through to avoid missing anyone new to my system that is worthy. I don’t have time to unsubscribe from all of those and learned that in the case of true spam, there is no opt-out and they track opens so that if you open, they send more. YIKES!
Hugs, Melissa
Hi, Melissa –
Great post. One time, in a company I worked for, a B2B e-newsletter was sent out under my name and my email, but the admin didn’t know what he/she was doing, so covered over the unsubscribe! To maintain my, and my company’s reputation, I had to read through thousands of returned emails to find the ones either politely asking to be unsubscribed, or, the really furious ones, giving them personal attention and calming the troubled waters!
Re getting rid of those hundreds of emails – Gmail is very good at that. I also send bad emails to spam. I think there is a way to have a Gmail account but it goes out under your professional email. My problem is that I get so overwhelmed with hundreds of emails every day at work, that I let my personal email pile up – I just don’t want to look at any more email!
Thanks for sharing! Maxine