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I just looked through my email, and you're right that many companies use preheaders (though usually with display: none). But I would classify most of them as su

I just looked through my email, and you're right that many companies use preheaders (though usually with display: none). But I would classify most of them as summaries of the email content. The email from Jimmy Wales, in contrast, uses it for deceptive purposes: it shows a completely different text fragment that sounds like a brief personal email. Also, just because the "email industry" routinely uses bad practices, that doesn't make it okay for wikimedia to do so.

_3u10 5y ago
It's not a bad practice, it's the preferred method by their customers. You can tell people's real preferences by the actions they take based on messaging. In aggregate a hard sell like this is people's preferred way of buying. The people who aren't going to buy unsubscribe increasing deliverability, the people who are going to buy are pushed off the fence into buying. On every email a sale is made, either you close them on a reason they can donate, or they close you on a reason they can't. Make no mistake, a sale is made. Guy says he'd donate if he didn't get emails like this, 5 years of not donating, and not donating before their email campaign, proved that was a lie.
- password4321 5y ago
  So the ends justify the means
  - _3u10 5y ago
    it’s market preference. No sane company caters their marketing to people who aren’t buying. For instance Nike customers like social justice marketing, many of their non-customers find the tactics abhorrent. Customers of Wikipedia like information being at risk non-customers find it abhorrent. Does the email not contain an unsubscribe link? Or any other illegal practice? Are they harvesting emails off the internet or did the OP enter their email and continue to remain subscribed to content they dislike?
legitster 5y ago
The ideal use of preheader is to cut away some of the chaff in the head of the email - text about logging in, account info, etc. They are tough to consistently plan for as each email client chooses a different length of text to preview. We've tested some pretty funky attention-grabbing ones, but nothing as blatantly exploitative as these. I really only see this kind of stuff coming in donation emails - I suspect recipients are more forgiving of it when it comes from a non-profit.

_3u10 5y ago

It's not a bad practice, it's the preferred method by their customers. You can tell people's real preferences by the actions they take based on messaging. In aggregate a hard sell like this is people's preferred way of buying. The people who aren't going to buy unsubscribe increasing deliverability, the people who are going to buy are pushed off the fence into buying. On every email a sale is made, either you close them on a reason they can donate, or they close you on a reason they can't. Make no mistake, a sale is made. Guy says he'd donate if he didn't get emails like this, 5 years of not donating, and not donating before their email campaign, proved that was a lie.

password4321 5y ago
So the ends justify the means
- _3u10 5y ago
  it’s market preference. No sane company caters their marketing to people who aren’t buying. For instance Nike customers like social justice marketing, many of their non-customers find the tactics abhorrent. Customers of Wikipedia like information being at risk non-customers find it abhorrent. Does the email not contain an unsubscribe link? Or any other illegal practice? Are they harvesting emails off the internet or did the OP enter their email and continue to remain subscribed to content they dislike?

legitster 5y ago

The ideal use of preheader is to cut away some of the chaff in the head of the email - text about logging in, account info, etc. They are tough to consistently plan for as each email client chooses a different length of text to preview. We've tested some pretty funky attention-grabbing ones, but nothing as blatantly exploitative as these. I really only see this kind of stuff coming in donation emails - I suspect recipients are more forgiving of it when it comes from a non-profit.