6 ms·

Agreed. Much of my consulting work is around email marketing and it always shocks me how many people "can't find" (or don't bother to find) the unsubscribe link

Agreed. Much of my consulting work is around email marketing and it always shocks me how many people "can't find" (or don't bother to find) the unsubscribe link and then either reply to the email or mark it as spam. While this will undoubtedly shrink some email lists, most of those people weren't going to be interested and buy (or whatever the action is) anyway. If you're doing email marketing, you should expect that a certain percentage of people will unsubscribe from any given email not because it's a bad email but they are just no longer interested. Making it more difficult for someone to unsubscribe just increases the likelihood that they'll complain or report it as spam and no one really benefits from that.

jamesaguilar 13y ago
They've been trained by unethical spam senders that unsubscribing doesn't work.
- hdevalence 13y ago
  Or, the company hides the "unsubscribe" link in a tiny font at the bottom of the email, and it's just much simpler to hit Gmail's big "spam" button at the top.
  - YeahKIA 13y ago
    Hotmail has had this for a long time and has been very helpful. Glad that Gmail folks are getting it as well.
  - arn 13y ago
    Is that really considered hiding? I expect the unsubscribe link to be a small link in the footer. If it's not, then it's an inconvenience.
    - lambda 13y ago
      It's small and hard to find. Yes, that's where I expect to find it, but that involves scrolling down and reading through a bunch of fine print to find the right thing. Oh, and I've had plenty of cases of using the unsubscribe link not actually work, or only unsubscribe me from one of the five lists that they autosubscribed me to, that it's hard to trust. On the other hand, the spam button is right up top, in the same place every time, and easy to click. It's a lot faster and more user friendly, and it generally gives me better results.
      - nnnnni 13y ago
        Let's not forget about the cases where the "unsubscribe" link is really just confirming that a person is receiving the emails so that more can be sent!
        lutusp 13y ago
        No, it's better than that. An advertiser that remails to someone who clicks "unsubscribe" risks prosecution, but he can share his unsubscribe list with a third party in the advertising business, and he can do it legally. This is a loophole in Can-Spam that no one noticed (and not the only one).
        eli 13y ago
        Who would want to buy a list of people who unsubscribe? I'm having a hard time imagining a less valuable list of valid email addresses.
        lutusp 13y ago
        > Who would want to buy a list of people who unsubscribe? A spammer. Before Can-Spam, spammers would always re-use and sell the address of someone who replied to a prior spam mailing, even if the reply was a threat of legal action.
        eli 13y ago
- eli 13y ago
  I think this is a myth. The unsubscribe link, from everything I've seen since CAN-SPAM a decade ago, almost always works.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    Almost always works for that particular mail, but verifies that mail is good for whoever that list is then sold on to.
    - eli 13y ago
      I can only offer my own experience, but I've been involved in email marketing for a while now and I've neither bought nor sold a list of email addresses.
      - awakeasleep 13y ago
        Have you ever closed down one list, but kept the DB of subscriber emails, and then started a new list, months later, that the 'subscriber' would have to unsubscribe from again? Because that definitely happens.
        eli 13y ago
        I've never done that, no. That's not very nice, but it's also bad business. People who unsubscribe have already told you they aren't interested. Email them again and you're far more likely to provoke an angry response than a useful click/open.
  - georgemcbay 13y ago
    It is becoming less common, but quite a few mailers would have that link take you to a website where you either need to login or type something to confirm the unsubscribe. In those cases I would always just hit the back button and then hit gmail's report as spam button, because fuck that. If any emailer's unsubscribe system is significantly more work for me than reporting as spam, I'm going to report it as spam and not feel the least bit of guilt about it.
notlisted 13y ago
I'm happy with this solution. Prefer an unsubscribe over someone hitting the spam button. If I get too many people marking my mailings as spam, my whole mailing list might be "frozen" until I prove that those people did indeed sign up. Some providers (e.g. Vertical response) even cancel accounts and cancel all existing credits if spam designations exceed 'appropriate' levels. I always approach people marking my newsletters as spam to explain why this is a problem. If they respond, most do, I use their response (eg 'I left the area') as proof to the provider that they simply meant to unsubscribe...

jamesaguilar 13y ago

They've been trained by unethical spam senders that unsubscribing doesn't work.

hdevalence 13y ago
Or, the company hides the "unsubscribe" link in a tiny font at the bottom of the email, and it's just much simpler to hit Gmail's big "spam" button at the top.
- YeahKIA 13y ago
  Hotmail has had this for a long time and has been very helpful. Glad that Gmail folks are getting it as well.
- arn 13y ago
  Is that really considered hiding? I expect the unsubscribe link to be a small link in the footer. If it's not, then it's an inconvenience.
  - lambda 13y ago
    It's small and hard to find. Yes, that's where I expect to find it, but that involves scrolling down and reading through a bunch of fine print to find the right thing. Oh, and I've had plenty of cases of using the unsubscribe link not actually work, or only unsubscribe me from one of the five lists that they autosubscribed me to, that it's hard to trust. On the other hand, the spam button is right up top, in the same place every time, and easy to click. It's a lot faster and more user friendly, and it generally gives me better results.
    - nnnnni 13y ago
      Let's not forget about the cases where the "unsubscribe" link is really just confirming that a person is receiving the emails so that more can be sent!
      - lutusp 13y ago
        No, it's better than that. An advertiser that remails to someone who clicks "unsubscribe" risks prosecution, but he can share his unsubscribe list with a third party in the advertising business, and he can do it legally. This is a loophole in Can-Spam that no one noticed (and not the only one).
        eli 13y ago
        Who would want to buy a list of people who unsubscribe? I'm having a hard time imagining a less valuable list of valid email addresses.
        lutusp 13y ago
        > Who would want to buy a list of people who unsubscribe? A spammer. Before Can-Spam, spammers would always re-use and sell the address of someone who replied to a prior spam mailing, even if the reply was a threat of legal action.
        eli 13y ago
eli 13y ago
I think this is a myth. The unsubscribe link, from everything I've seen since CAN-SPAM a decade ago, almost always works.
- pessimizer 13y ago
  Almost always works for that particular mail, but verifies that mail is good for whoever that list is then sold on to.
  - eli 13y ago
    I can only offer my own experience, but I've been involved in email marketing for a while now and I've neither bought nor sold a list of email addresses.
    - awakeasleep 13y ago
      Have you ever closed down one list, but kept the DB of subscriber emails, and then started a new list, months later, that the 'subscriber' would have to unsubscribe from again? Because that definitely happens.
      - eli 13y ago
        I've never done that, no. That's not very nice, but it's also bad business. People who unsubscribe have already told you they aren't interested. Email them again and you're far more likely to provoke an angry response than a useful click/open.
- georgemcbay 13y ago
  It is becoming less common, but quite a few mailers would have that link take you to a website where you either need to login or type something to confirm the unsubscribe. In those cases I would always just hit the back button and then hit gmail's report as spam button, because fuck that. If any emailer's unsubscribe system is significantly more work for me than reporting as spam, I'm going to report it as spam and not feel the least bit of guilt about it.

notlisted 13y ago

I'm happy with this solution. Prefer an unsubscribe over someone hitting the spam button. If I get too many people marking my mailings as spam, my whole mailing list might be "frozen" until I prove that those people did indeed sign up. Some providers (e.g. Vertical response) even cancel accounts and cancel all existing credits if spam designations exceed 'appropriate' levels. I always approach people marking my newsletters as spam to explain why this is a problem. If they respond, most do, I use their response (eg 'I left the area') as proof to the provider that they simply meant to unsubscribe...