Be Careful With Your E-mail List

I have spent a lot of time in the mass e-mail business, and one of the first things you learn is that you need to respect your list or face unsubscribes and/or negative word of mouth.

Two examples of potentially list-thinning practices have recently come to my attention: one from MoveOn.org and another from Rock the Vote.

Here is one of the e-mails from Rock the Vote (click to enlarge):

This e-mail was mentioned to me by a couple of people about being extremely spammy and way off the purpose of the list. Furthermore, it was the second Credo mobile sales pitch e-mail from Rock the Vote in a short span of time.

People sign up to an organization's email list to receive information about what the organization is doing, not to get sales pitches that resemble every other spam e-mail that hit their inbox that day. The first time people may have ignored it, the second time people probably figure it's a trend that will continue and unsubscribe.

The second example is from MoveOn, and it is when people start to get more e-mails than they bargained for. I caught a Twitter exchange recently that was discussing the recent flurry.

I understand that part of the problem is that MoveOn members can create events and then invite members in their area, which can lead to an uncontrolled number of e-mail requests, but it is something that should be kept in mind. In this case, the amount of e-mails not only resulted in possible unsubscribes but moved users to publicly vent their frustration about the organization's e-mail practices.

When determining an e-mail strategy it is important to know your audience and what they expect and to give it to them, nothing more and nothing less. It's easier said than done, but when your organization hits that happy medium your list will strengthen and grow.

What are your experiences with mass e-mails, either sending or receiving? Share your thoughts in the comments.