I receive newsletters periodically from KPMG but far as I know, I never subscribed to them or gave them permission to send these to me. I’ve never been a customer, I don’t recall downloading a whitepaper, attending a seminar, or talking to anyone from that company. Yet somehow they have assumed that I want to hear from them.
This is the type of practice I truly hope the upcoming CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Law) is able to curb. The new law aims for opt-in as the key mechanism for demonstrating consent, although it leaves some room for interpretation with the use of implied consent.
Even if I did once give KPMG permission, I make it a habit of unsubscribing from newsletters of reputable companies whose updates I don’t care to receive. I do this in order to test if they are actually following proper email marketing best practices. I mention reputable companies because I expect them to follow best practices and respect people. It’s been well-documented that non-reputable companies will just use the unsubscribe link as confirmation that there is a real person at the other end of an email address.
To ensure that I would no longer receive emails from them, I clicked on the unsubscribe link in the KPMG newsletter. Instead of just unsubscribing me in one step, it opened my email client with a pre-configured message. That’s OK, I suppose. I’ll just click send and these newsletters will stop. So I do, and guess what happens- the email bounces!
I think KPMG and other such companies could stand to learn a thing or two, to say the least, about better email marketing practices.
Now it’s your turn. In the comments below let me know know:
- Which company sent you emails even though you never joined their email list?
- Which company made it difficult for you to unsubscribe from their email list?
