Recently I’ve been buying a lot of baby stuff online, which means I’ve been added to several email mailing lists. Some of them I asked to be added to. The rest added me without asking me when I bought something.
Online Buyers Aren’t Always Your Target Market
It drives me nuts. Ask me when I checkout if I want to get your email pitches. Don’t just assume that I want to be added because I bought something. That just means I have to go to extra work of sending an unsubscribe message. This is especially true of Christmas purchases. I have teenage cousins. Sometimes they want things from stores I don’t shop at. If I’m buying a one time gift, I don’t want to get daily emails promoting your specials. I want to get the item I purchased and then I want you to leave me alone. If I want something else, I know how to find the website.
That one was especially hard to unsubscribe from, too, which made the whole thing even more annoying.
Don’t Email Me Daily
The other emails that annoy me are the daily offers from chain stores. I don’t need a daily update on your sales! Email me once a week. If you’re having a super-duper one-day sale, fine, send me a special email (if I’ve signed up), but I don’t need a daily reminder of your 30% off sale that lasts all week.
It also seems that services I’ve signed up for are now getting in on the daily deals and have started sending me daily deal offers without asking me. Angie’s List and Amazon: I’m looking at you. I don’t need more daily deals in my email. I’m especially wary of the Angie’s List offers. If the service provider is so good, why are they offering 50% off to Angie’s List members? It actually reflects poorly on Angie’s List and the service provider.
What Do I Do About the Bombardment?
Since I check email usually from my phone, I’ve started using that unsubscribe button. If I’m downloading email at home, all of those messages automatically go into a “coupons” folder that I never remember to look in, so I don’t even know I’ve received an offer. If I’m checking webmail from the office, the first thing I do is delete all the various ads. I get so few actual emails these days that these ads have become as bad as the junk mail in my mailbox during election season. Guess what happens to those mailers, too? So that’s a big hint for email advertisers: if I’m lumping you in with political mailers, you’re emailing me too often. STOP!
