Michele, My ... My!

For some reason, a few months back I began receiving emails from a company called Michele. Other than my middle name being Michelle (spelled with 2 l's), I can't thing of a single common thread between me and this company. I've never purchased from them, and in fact haven't a clue what they sell, despite receiving many emails over that time period.

Anyway, I decided time had come to end the non-existent relationship between my inbox and Michele. This is the most recent email I received, on July 23:



This email has its share of issues, not the least of which being - Where is the unsubscribe link?!?

Can you find it? I couldn't. So, I marked it as spam. Hopefully Michele's ESP has an auto-unsubscribe feature when a complaint code is returned, or I'll keep getting these... since I still can't figure out how I am supposed to unsubscribe. If I get another, I'll reply to the email address from which it was sent, but something tells me it will bounce.

Hiding an unsubscribe link won't get you fewer unengaged subscribers, but it will give you a huge complaint rate and most likely, a blacklist entry. Make your unsubscribe link easy to find and easy to use, so that people who don't want to receive your emails, won't. You don't want indifferent subscribers!

Update: I did, finally, find the unsubscribe link. It is buried at the very bottom (in WHITE on BLACK, shame shame) in mouse type. When I clicked it, it opened a new window with just "Your e-mail address has been unsubscribed" floating in plain Times New Roman (at least it was black on a white background!). I'm guessing it was their ESP (Silverpop)'s default unsubscribe message. What a bad user experience.

Step Away from My Inbox

Oh, Carlson Hotels, what were you thinking?

There are at least 3 things wrong with this email I received a few weeks ago. See if you can spot them.



1) The entire crux of the email is a pitch trying to get me to sign up for their email program. Um, if I asked you NOT to send me emails, why would you then proceed to email me? Just because it is technically permitted by CAN-SPAM, does not mean it is a good practice.

2) No unsubscribe link. That's right, not only did they send this email without my permission, they also didn't provide a way for me to make sure they don't email me again.

3) "This is a post only email. Please do not reply." These words should never appear in any customer-facing email. Ever. Customers should always have a way to contact you. Plus, in this case, it makes this email in violation of CAN-SPAM since there is no way whatsoever to opt-out - no unsubscribe link (see #2) and no way to reply with an unsubscribe request.

Carlson Hotels, major fail on your part.

How could this campaign be improved? I gave you permission to snail-mail me. How about sending me an enticing offer via mail, encouraging me to sign up for your emails? While it won't deliver immediate responses, or probably have as good of a return rate, it also won't be illegal. And it won't make me do what this email did - close my account entirely.