Don't SPAM my Inbox - How To Lose All Your Subscribers

10 emails in one day from the same person is way over the top, but if you subscribed to this list and hit the 'report as spam' button then you are worse than him/her.

Hit the unsubscribe link and be done with it.

I'd really like to know if you DID subscribe to this list or if it was just plain spam. If you subscribed and are serious in your intentions about reporting it as spam, you should be 'unsubscribed' from the internet.

Hey Shlomi,

Unfortunately, that's a losing battle if you did subscribe to his non-sense email blasts. All you can do is unsubscribe. If he continues to hound you after that, then you have firm ground to stand on.

The reason I do not subscribe to any list .. I am on 2 list now (it was one), personally I do not like all the junk in my mailbox.. I much rather spend the time with my customers, clients, and members vs reading some marketing email about this product or that product that I know I am not goiong to buy anyways.

James

I think it is best to unsubscribe rather than report spam because unsubscribing guarantees that you will not get any more emails and reporting spam could get them in trouble and you did sign up for the list.

By signing up to someone's list, you give permission to that person to send you as many emails as they want. If you didn't subscribe to the list, then it would be spam.

It doesn't matter whether you like what they're doing or not. The fact of the matter is that you were subscribed to that list which gave that marketer permission to mail you to their heart's delight.

The difference is, you gave the person PERMISSION to send you emails...

So, you gave them permission to send you emails - Likely, because you wanted a FREE product...then when a marketer markets to you, you report him as spam? lol

Just unsubscribe from him lol.

Sometimes, you go to a car dealership because it was recommended by a friend.

Then you get approached by a sleezeball salesman. He starts pitching deals instead of building a relationship. What do you do?

You leave. Or ask for another salesman. (Probably leave)

Point is, you went in and gave them your presence. Then they blew it. Same thing here. You tried giving this guy/gal a shot. They blew it. Go find someone else.

I have unsubscribed, I'm just making a point here.

Most non marketer subscribers would not search for the unsubscribe link!
they will press the spam button!

Sometimes I got difficult to unsubscribe. When it happened, I'll trace from where the domain hosted. I report it to hosting company as spam. Spam activity has agreed as a crime so whoever will try to fight.

My personal view:

10 emails a day from one list subscription is wayyy over the top but it's not spam when you have voluntarily opted in. I am in agreement with the majority of the guys in the thread, the solution is to just opt out. To opt into a list then complain that the messages you are receiving is spam is not accurate or fair to the guy/girl running the business. It's subjective how many emails a day is 'too much'. To me 10 is insane but someone else may not mind one iota. Is 2 too many? How about 3? It's all personal opinion. Just unsubscribe and be at peace with the world What were you looking to achieve by reporting it as spam? Isn't it easier to just unsubscribe and carry on with the important stuff in your day?

Hi Alan,

I totally agree with the points made by most of the responders here that if you are unhappy with an unsubscription, you should just unsubscribe.

But conversely, I do (kind of) agree with Shlomi that many people will hit the spam button instead.

And I do also understand the psychology behind their thinking.

These prospects are jaded - not just from internet marketing but from ALL marketing. They have been exposed to 'bait and switch' and all of the other cliches over and over and over - not just from businesses, but from governments, spouses, offspring, bosses - everyone around them.

Their resulting actions are irresponsible, not thought through and not helpful. But THAT is the nature (in general) of being a consumer. Many don't have time to consider all of the rights and wrongs of the world in order to react accordingly.

In the face of most marketing they feel entirely powerless to avoid it/respond to it appropriately and consequently respond with a knee-jerk reaction. Let's face it, it is a marketer's dream to have a captive audience for their pitch - therefore we often attempt to 'corner' them into this position. If you corner anything, it may lash out indiscriminately.

When they open their inbox, all of a sudden they are EMPOWERED. They have a 'weapon' to fight back, and instead of fighting fire with fire, they can actually strike back double and hit marketers where it really hurts.

Whether this is right or wrong is not relevant to them. This is why they will pointlessly rant at a customer service rep over the phone, all the while knowing in the back of their mind that the rep's only responsibility is to 'field' the call and send the customer away with some kind of satisfaction - their job is to take the ranting on the chin, appease and then move onto the next one.

The company knows what causes customers to rant (and the customer knows this) and they see it as a necessary trade off for being able to increase profits by cutting corners. Better to have the profit and pay a fraction of it for the rep to take the flak.

So the customer's actions are pointless and illogical. The company's actions are not. The customer takes the best option (in their mind) available and let's someone have both barrels. Nothing changes except the customer feels EMPOWERED - even though they are actually not, and even though the rep who receives the rant has no authority, is not directly responsible and doesn't really deserve it.

Many things that customers/prospects do are illogical, pointless and annoying.

But as marketers you have a choice - you either create an illogical and virtually pointless rant of your own. OR you choose to fully understand that YOU are the marketer and that they are not - therefore it is in your interest to understand and predict the prospects' likely reactions in order that you are prepared for it and can maximise the gains for yourself and your company.

IF you suddenly and obviously overstep the mark and deliver your marketing in an unusual manner that is likely to get 'in the face' of your prospects, then be wise enough to forsee this occurence and predict their response.

They will likely (as has been spelled out above) feel violated and abused and they will feel semi-helpless because one of their only available responses is to contact you (via email, not instant message - email takes longer) and they will probably assume that you will ignore it.

Therefore they may justify to themselves that YOU overstepped the mark first, therefore they can too by reporting you for spam even though technically you didn't.

Why do you think so many 'consumers' that end up here as marketers consider 'spamming' to be sending too much email, or sending it too regularly? It's probably because they have individually, but ultimately en masse, decided to redefine spamming as 'sending too many pushy emails' in order to justify their actions that they know will damage a person's business.

In their minds, they are empowering themselves against a more powerful enemy by using their initiative in what is (in their minds) the only manner left available to them.

In many other totally different scenarios, this would be applauded as an example of human resourcefulness and a determination to win.

Therefore it's much better as a marketer to understand this, and act appropriately to either -

a) avoid it

b) ensure that the gains are greater than the loss

I don't see it as being complicated to understand. But on that basis -

Why do business people come here and say such things? Have you never heard of or considered a 'churn and burn' strategy? This is where the strategy means that you WILL lose a quantity of prospects through your marketing choices, but you believe that you are funnelling enough in at the front end to replace them (or increase the size of your list overall).

This is just another approach to business, which has many plus points (EG you can market really hard). If that doesn't appeal to you or it crosses some personal ethical boundary, fine. Your choice. But to suggest that anyone who markets hard and therefore is bound to have some 'casualties' is going to 'lose all their subscribers' is just not so clever.

Whatever your style/approach, you will do a lot better if you try to fully understand all of the other approaches - many of which will be utilised by your competitors. Because it's more than likely that some of your competitors will fully understand your approach, and will be striving to lessen the impact of it on the marketplace.

If you choose to write off your competitors' approach as 'bound to fail' purely because it doesn't match your own view of the way things 'should be done', then you are being naive and leaving yourself vulnerable.

I just sent out a series to 5300 subscribes - 4 timed emails in one day and I got a lot of conversions. I also lost 17 subscribers... out of 5300! My regular daily optin rate is 39 new subscribers.

Just so you are sure - All 4 of the emails were PROMOTIONAL SALES emails.

Did I spam them? NO - every one WANTED my emails except for 17 out of 5300 - less than 1%.

Just aggressive marketing for a day - NOT SPAM

edited to say that the number of people who hit the "spam" button was less than a tenth of 1%