Defining permission down

This week I got an email with this subject:

Please confirm your registration for _______

My reaction: Huh? Did I register for that?

I did recognize the name that’s blanked out above, so I opened the message, and here’s what I found:

Dear John,

I am writing to let you know that I have signed you up to receive the _______ series of best practice white papers, eBooks, and demos.

The message went on to explain that I visited their site and left my name once, so they thought I’d like to see this. I did visit their site. I did leave my name. In fact, I’ve been getting a steady stream of email from them - which is fine, because I said that was okay. I’m not sure how this new set of messages is different (it sounds like exactly what I’ve been getting).

Best of all, I’m being asked to confirm the registration I never performed, but the message ends by telling me this:

If you do NOT want to receive this information, you can unsubscribe now or at any time during the series.

So, what is the “confirmation” about? It sounds like I’m getting this information that I didn’t ask for (unless it’s what it sounds like, which is the same information I’m already getting), whether I “confirm” or not.

This is not permission email.

I’ve been hearing from this company for a while. It would be totally appropriate for them to send a message saying, “Hey, we’ve been sending you stuff but we’ve never heard from you; can we ask you a few questions to understand what you’re looking for?” Anything that shows understanding of and respect for the very tenuous relationship I’ve got with this company would be fine.

Instead I’m left thinking, “Why are they bothering me?”

Remember the key to using email: send things that are expected, relevant, and personalized. (A name attached to a generic message is not “personalized,” it’s just demonstrating the application of 1970s mail merge technology.)

Not things that are none of the above.

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