

How not to write an email opt-out page - dnewcome
http://newcome.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/how-not-to-write-an-email-opt-out-page/

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raganwald
Johnson! Develop an email opt out page immediately!

Sir! Yes, Sir!

Oh, and Johnson?

Sir?

As you know our organization rides itself on our customer service and ability
to extend customer relationships. Therefore, Marketing will be using analytics
to measure customer retention. If your page does not meet their target of 87%
retention, you will be terminated.

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Entlin
And now, how not to write a blog post: use that javascript "Snap" preview
thingie.

Because people like it, it adds real benefit for users and never obstructs
what they really want to read.

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dnewcome
Good point. I just disabled snap previews.

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Entlin
Thanks.

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chaosmachine
The worst are the ones that ask you to type in your email address. Most of the
time they just give you an "Error: That email address is not in our database".
Lovely, you just wasted my time twice.

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nollidge
My favorite are when it says that it "may take up to 2 weeks to process".
Doesn't inspire much confidence in your development staff if a simple table
update or delete takes 2 weeks to run.

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derefr
I assume that usually means that they put your address in a removal queue, and
then batch them out to the external firm (i.e. botfarm) that handles their
actual mailing. They might even have to send the list by mail/fax, or read it
over the phone to the third party; you never know how backwards some systems
can work, especially when there's no conferred survival advantage in evolving
that "organ" of them.

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thirdusername
I hate the ones that don't let you unsubscribe because they need you to login
first. Then you don't have the login information so you need to do a password
recovery, which you can't do without supplying the town your mother was born
in/a phone number from 6 years ago both of which you either have either have
no idea about or have since long forgotten.

This was my unsuccessful attempt at getting rid of the WAR newsletter. :(

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rdmcfee
Haha! Good comparison of a company who considers their use cases vs. one who
doesn't.

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rubyrescue
if the goal is to not allow easy opt-out, perhaps the first one is well
designed.

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bugs
Personally I think an opt out page should have an are you sure you want to opt
out incase the person accidentally unsubscribed. But yes it should be an easy
yes or no button.

