TWSD: Don't honor opt-outs

One of the big arguments various mailers make is that they make it easy for users to opt-out of mail, so it’s not a big deal. Users who don’t want to receive the mail, can make it stop. This was one of the guiding principles of CAN SPAM. The sender can make the decision to send mail to any recipient but they have to offer an opt-out.
The problem is there are a lot of major companies out there that don’t honor opt-outs. Since earlier this year I’ve been tracking when I opt-out of mail. Why? Because I kept getting the feeling that I’d opted out of mail before, but kept getting it.
The good(?) news is that it wasn’t my imagination, some of these companies aren’t honoring their opt-outs. The bad news is that major companies are not honoring opt-outs.

eFax opt-out confirmation
I’ve seen this page 4 times in the last 9 weeks, but I am still getting mail.
My notes tell me I’ve unsubscribed by clicking on the unsubscribe link from this efax mailing 4 times: 6/24, 7/18, 7/25 and 8/13.
I tried visiting the URL in the List-Unsubscribe header, but that link appears to be broken. It almost seems like eFax doesn’t really want to let me opt-out of their mail.
No page here. Find another way to opt-out.
No page here. Find another way to opt-out.
Of course, I don’t think this is a deliberate decision to violate US Federal law. I think it’s more likely the company eFax is using to send mail is incompetently run. There are lots of incompetently run ESPs out there. Sadly, though, as I looked into the issue to give eFax the benefit of the doubt and suggest their ESP was the problem, I discovered that the ESP in question was bought by eFax’s parent company back in 2005.
Incompetence in an email marketing program. I find it in so many places, but never cease to be disappointed at the incompetence. There is an important takeaway here, though.
Every mailer should check their unsubscribe process at least quarterly. Stuff breaks, things are updated but the updates don’t filter through the whole process, staff members cobble together processes and then machines fail and no one knows they’ve failed. These aren’t malicious problems, they’re a sign of neglect. No one should be using a negligent ESP.

Related Posts

Logging in to unsubscribe

I have been talking with a company about their unsubscribe process and their placement of all email preferences behind an account login. In the process, I found a number of extremely useful links about the requirements.
The short version is: under the 2008 FTC rulemaking senders cannot require any information other than an email address and an email preference to opt-out of mail. That means senders can’t charge a fee, they can’t ask for personal information and they can’t require a password or a login to unsubscribe.
I’ve talked about requiring a login to unsubscribe in the past here on the Word to the Wise blog.
Let them go
Questions about CAN SPAM
One click, two click, red click, blue click
How not to handle unsubscribes
I’m not the only person, though, that’s written about this.
The FTC has written about it in the FTC CAN SPAM Compliance Guide for business

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Unsubscribe rates as a measure of engagement.

Over at Spamtacular Mickey talks about the email marketers’ syllogism.

  1. Anyone who doesn’t want our mail will opt-out.
  2. Most people don’t opt-out.
  3. Therefore, most people want our mail.

This clearly fallacious reasoning is something I deal with frequently with my clients, particularly those who come to me for reputation repair. They can’t understand why people are calling them spammers, because their unsubscribe rates and complaint rates are very low. The low complaints and unsubscribes must mean their mail is wanted. Unfortunately, the email marketers’ syllogism leads them to faulty conclusions.
There are many reasons people don’t opt-out of mail they don’t want. Some of it may be practical, the mail never hits their inbox, either due to ISP level filters or their own personal filters. Some people take a stance that they do not opt out of mail they did not opt-in to and if they don’t recognize the company, they won’t opt-out.
In any case, low levels of opt-outs or even this-is-spam hits does not mean that recipients want that mail. The sooner marketers figure this out, the better for them and their delivery.

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Does CAN SPAM require multiple opt-outs on emails?

Today’s Wednesday question comes from M. B.

My company sometimes sends mail to our list on behalf of 3rd parties. A recent 3rd party told us that CAN SPAM requires the email contain their opt-out link as well as ours. Is this correct?”

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