eric rochow

Like me, you probably get a few of these a week. An email with a subject line that sounds familiar. You open the email to find it is from a group, usually a non-profit, about an event or some issue they are working on.

I’ve replied to a few of these emails, asking the sender where they got my email address, below is typical of the answer I get back, this one came today, hence this post.

Quite honestly, I am not sure how I got your address in that at one point in this project a former colleague and I pooled together group emails we had received from like-minded organizations.

The sender of this particular email used Constant Contact, which is the service I also use. They have a very easy one click procedure to unsubscribe - keep that easy unsubscribe in mind when choosing a mass email vendor - but still, I had no idea how they had gotten my address. Here is my response I sent back:

…while i certainly applaud the work you are doing, and the smart use of an email service that provides an easy opt-out policy, ( i also use constant contact ) people need to be careful who they send email news to.

my experience has found that people, more and more, are guarding their email addresses, and at times can react in a way not intended to unsolicited emails. instead of garnering support for your cause, you lose them.

i’ve been added to several lists the same way i was added to yours, and i’ve gotten similar answers when i ask how they got my name.

my suggestion to you would be to put at the end of your letter a short sentence something along the lines of :

By compiling several groups lists, we got your email address and thought you’d be interested in this event, if you do not want to receive emails from us, please click on this link to remove your name.

that will defuse most people who might be annoyed with yet another unsolicited email. yes, there is unsubscribe link at the bottom, but a link within the body of the letter works better, its more personal .

Constant Contact requires you to attest that all the email addresses you use with their email service have agreed to receive emails from you. So my answer is not letter perfect.

If you are sending out an email, my suggestion is to not compile a bunch of addresses that everyone in the office has, you can run into trouble. Instead, ask the recipients of the email you’re sending to forward it to people they think would be interested. And include a link in your email letter allowing people who have received it to forward to people they feel may be interested.

Photo by Todd Ehlers