Monday, June 6, 2016

The cruel world of email newsletters

A lot of our revenue comes from sales generated by our newsletters, sent as monthly email.

The newsletters often contain notice of new releases, discounts, etc. stuff that you would think everyone is interested in.

We understand if someone wants to unsubscribe; we readily comply with their request, and never send them email again. Unfortunately, some people's idea of "unsubscribing" is to click on the prominently displayed "Spam" button in many popular email services. This generates a complaint to our own email service. Too many complaints jeopardizes us.

Having spoken with a few customers who "complained" by clicking on the Spam button, it is apparent that people have no idea they are doing this. They believe the Spam button is just a quick, easy way to unsubscribe, instead of clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email. This link is admittedly harder to find.

Here are some typical email menus:

AOL email menu

Hotmail/MSN email menu

Yahoo email menu

As a result of the high rate of (involuntary) complaints, we are forced to withhold email to certain Websites. If you have not been receiving our newsletters and you use Hotmail, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, etc. please send an email to  order@progenygenealogy.com, and we will activate your subscription.