One of the rules in delivering newsletters is obtaining permission of delivery before delivering. However, there are circumstances involving the delivery before a permission. In this scenario, a newsletter delivered this way is an intrusion of the receivers email inbox.
On the other hand, I believe in bending rules or the principle of give and take. Therefore I don’t mind if someone sends me their newsletter though I might’ve not opt-in for it. But I refuse to accept the inability to unsubscribe from their mailing list. I’m going to share my recent experience so there’s a name in the continuing paragraph.
Vainpots is a recently launched project. The website purpose seems unclear or not clearly defined so all I think of it is a place for visitors to find out the latest happenings and products.
Its newsletter does exactly that too. It updates its subscribers of the recent news and ideas in Vainpot. It was a surprise receiving it in my mailbox one day and being in this industry, I was curious if this might be a new idea or a direct competitor. That’s when I first read their newsletter and visited the website.
It looked contemporary but I couldn’t understand what the website was all about and I still don’t know even now. Because I’ve not found any value in the newsletter content even after receiving the second and third newsletter, I wanted to unsubscribe from their mailing list.
At the bottom of their newsletter was the instructions on what I needed to do. It clearly stated I needed to send a blank email to an opt-out email address as the system is automated. I’ve repeated the process twice because of the newsletter that keeps coming back.
From an opportunity, it became a disappointment and now it’s made me frustrated with Vainpot. If the team stumbles upon this, I hope you have taken this as a lesson from a reader. If I want to unsubscribe, please ensure the opt-out mechanism is functioning. Otherwise, don’t bend the rules and send out the newsletter to just any email because it was purchased or found.
What would you do if you received an email newsletter that you never subscribed to? Will you open and read it? Will you delete it right away? Share it out.