January 31, 2008 I hate it when I’m automatically opted-in to an email list
On Tuesday, I just happened to come across Reunion.com on Google and thought I’d sign up just to see if I could cross pathes with an old friend or schoolmate. It was an extremely easy process and took me only a couple of minutes. One thing that I didn’t know was that they automatically signed me up to receive every type of email they send. Almost immediately, I got an email saying that 5 people had searched my name. Out of curiosity, I looked at the people that supposedly searched my name. Of course I hadn’t heard of any of the people and figured they were searching for another Jay Lane. There are tons of them out there.
Anyway, I decided I didn’t want to receive the emails anymore so I clicked on “Opt Out/Modify Alert Frequency” in the email. They had opted me into like 5 different kinds of emails. I selected that I never wanted to receive future emails. Being the niave marketing professional that I am, I expected to not receive any additional emails.
So of course I receive an email the very next day telling me about someone in Texas searching my name. I went back to my preferences and everything I had checked was still checked so why am I still receiving these alerts?
My next thought was to see if I could delete my account. They did provide an easy option for this so I went ahead and deleted my account. I wonder if I’ll still get emails?
My point with this big rant is that if customers asks to be removed from a mailing list, they should be immediately. As an email marketer, I understand why subscribers sometimes report our emails as spam. It’s because they know they’ll automatically be removed.
As email marketers, we need to do a better job of doing what our customers ask when they want it, not when it’s convenient for us.
