Email Marketing Ethics 101 – how spam email practices hurt us all and what to avoid — Sharon Z Jewelry

This originally appeared as a Twitter thread here

Recently I got added to an email list by a climate organization and I was incensed. It seemed, even to me, like it might be a petty annoyance, but thinking about it more and more I couldn’t help but reflect on how ethics affects our jewelry businesses in more ways than just sourcing gems and metals. Spammy email practices hurt us all for one enormous reason:

Trust.

Trust. Do people trust you when you sell their data? I dunno, ask Facebook. Do people trust you when you opt them into an email newsletter that they didn’t ask to be on? No. No they do not. And that’s what this organization did.

People Won’t Trust You if You Don’t Let Them Unsubscribe

This organization made it so that I couldn’t just tap the unsubscribe button at the bottom of their email. I had to re-enter it altogether to unsubscribe.

Trust takes time for a brand or even an organization to build – it doesn’t happen overnight. And it takes very little time to break it. In the case of this particular organization, it took seconds for me to learn that they were not to be trusted.

Don’t Purchase Lists, Don’t Sell Lists

I could tell, based on which email they sent this to, that they had purchased my email from another list. So that’s strike 1. Strike 2 – The footer of their email doesn’t mention how I got on their list, and it should. It always should. On mine, I have a simple explainer that you got on my list by signing up at a show, or by adding yourself via a form on my website, or by signing up for my eCourses.

And it is right by the easy unsubscribe button. No rerouting you to enter your email again. Like so: