Get off that LIST!
Email newsletters
Some are good, some not so good. Some you want and some you don’t.
…and some we keep just to be polite.
The trick is to receive the information you want and need in the way that works for you, so you don’t get overwhelmed with useless information.
Back in the days when email newsletters were new, email addresses were added often and against the will of the email recipient. It was bad, and people couldn’t get off these lists and sometimes they even had to abandon their email addresses entirely because of the congestion.
- Today, things have changed
The good news is that randomly adding your email addresses to newsletters is happening less and less, as the laws for email newsletters are tightening up. The CAN-SPAM Act has been instrumental in giving email newsletters some reasonable guidelines for how they should behave.
Recently a new act has been passed by the European Union that will impact email marketing around the world. GDPR has recently gone into effect and is taking the idea of consent-based email to a whole new level. With this new law, the data received from European Union members must be treated with security and respect as outlined in the law. While this will require more work on the part of those who send email and keep data of visitors and customers, it will give us all a greater level of control and protection.
My favorite rule is the requirement for an “UNSUBSCRIBE” link in all email newsletters. And once you choose to unsubscribe the sender must get you off the list within 10 days.
Legitimate email marketers are following the rules and the law.
This is a fabulous law!
True professionals want the people who will benefit from their email subscription to receive it. If you are not interested, they really don’t want to bother you or clog up your email systems.
NONE of them want to send anyone “junk” or “spam”. Sometimes, however, even professionals get a little fuzzy on the rules and best practices.
Today, I am going to share some tips about unsubscribing verses blocking or labeling an email as spam or junk.
Unsubscribe tips
Tip #1: You can trust the “Unsubscribe” Link. Go through the process. It is the best, most honorable way to get off a list.
A legitimate professional email will have an opt-out message. (usually found at the bottom of the email called: unsubscribe, opt out, manage subscription or similar verbiage)
This doesn’t apply to the individual emails that are sent directly to you one-to-one, or the email receipts from products you purchased. (just the subscriptions and advertisements)
This is the #1 thing to look for in determining if something is spam or junk. If an email newsletter doesn’t have this important item then the sender can face serious fines.
When you receive an email with a clear “opt-out” or “unsubscribe” process you can be reasonably sure that they will honor your request to unsubscribe you from their list. Please use the option.
As professionals, we are all trying to find our way, do what is right, offer good service, and get ahead. You may be on a list and you “know” you didn’t give the company permission to add you. This can happen, but it may not be malicious. Please give grace and simply unsubscribe.
Tip #2: If you, (and enough other people) mark an email as junk or spam, a message is sent to the email host systems and eventually all email from that sender will be blocked from everyone’s email.
No one will be able to receive email from them. I think you and I would both be sad if that happened to our favorite email newsletter.
If the email is lacking an opt-out or unsubscribe process, then, by all means, block them, spam them, and junk them. Without an opt-out or unsubscribe process they have given you no other option.
Also if the “unsubscribe” option is just a message telling you to reply to the email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line and it is from someone you don’t know or have never heard of I would block it.
And definitely, block messages from strangers asking for money or dates or offering something you never requested.
Tip #3: Many email lists have several “lists” within them and unsubscribing from one does not necessarily unsubscribe you from all. (this may be why you still receive emails from companies you unsubscribed from.
Give the company a little grace and make sure you go through the process of unsubscribing from ALL the lists before getting too frustrated at them. They should have an “Opt-Out of All Emails” option on their unsubscribe page. It is usually at the bottom.
Tip #4: And lastly, make sure you are unsubscribing with the email address you used when you subscribed.
This is a very common reason you still receive emails you thought you unsubscribed from. It happened to me once. A subscriber sent me a very frustrated email begging me to unsubscribe her. I did a little digging and discovered that she was unsubscribing with abc@email.com and all this time I was sending emails to xyz@email.com. No wonder it didn’t work! Luckily we got it figured out.
Today, I offer you a challenge.
Go through your email and find the emails that have been annoying you for a while and go through the unsubscribe process. The link should be at the bottom of the email.
Nicole Lux-Ritchie - Founder of Luxcentric
Nicole's mission is to help feminine professionals gain the technical
skills they need to grow their business and focus on their missions.
The focus of Luxcentric is on training practical strategies in the area of the core technologies.
EMAIL - FILES - CALENDARS - CONTACTS
For those of you who find this information useful and would like to contribute to the cause (and keep it ad free)...
P.S.
For those of you who would you like help unsubscribing. I offer a Topic Tackle for just this situation.
Here is how you take advantage of this offer.
- Schedule a Topic Tackle and let's get it started!
Be sure to ask how you can get UNLIMITED Topic Tackles
