Re: Responsible Email Marketing
Mark Brownlow raised the issue of subscribing to
opt-in e-newsletters and then receiving ad supplements,
both with and without warning and/or opportunity to
opt-out: are these SPAM?
My take on this is that it depends on whether your
were warned that these would be part of the "price"
of receiving the newsletter. If you were told
before you subscribed, or in the Welcome message
for the list, or in a message from the list
administrator to the subscribers that you will be
receiving these ad supplements, they're not SPAM.
You have the opportunity to either not subscribe
or unsubscribe before the ad supplements begin
coming. Ideally, you would know this before you
subscribed, but I'm on lists where ad supplements
were launched long after I subscribed, so
notification via the list was the only way to warn
people.
Advertising in e-newsletters that you opted to
receive is not SPAM; it's the price for receiving
the newsletter.
Advertising to the newsletter subscribers in mailings
separate from the newsletter without due notice that
these are part of the price for receiving the
newsletter is not responsible email marketing.
Having the ability to opt-out of ad supplements that
you were warned would be part of subscribing to the
e-newsletter would be optimal. However, as long as
you know that the ad supplements are part of the
subscription price, you have the choice or whether to
subscribe -- or stay subscribed -- or to unsubscribe.
The key elements here are that you initially opted-in
for the newsletter and that you are given notice that
there are going to be ad supplements, so that you can
unsubscribe if you don't want to receive them.
Terry Brainerd Chadwick InfoQuest! Information Services
mailto:tbchad@tbchad.com http://www.tbchad.com Phone: 1.503.228.4023
Strategic Research Content Development Site Evaluation, Usability &
Optimization
Received on Sat Aug 19 2000 - 14:00:44 CDT
