There are many shades of gray when it comes to unsolicited emails (especially those sent by startups). You know how important it is to get words out about your new venture. And, growing organically might not be the best path these ventures want to follow. Many entrepreneurs spend so much money purchasing email lists and immediately begin to bombard you with emails. This is so common with the eCommerce companies spring up in Lagos every month.
You don’t just get my email from a vendor and begin to hard-sell to me from beginning. The first email should be an introductory email explaining what you do and even jokingly apologising to the recipient for the unsolicited email. Yes, you should be apologised to for the spam. Then, you can go ahead to candidly ask the recipient to opt out at that stage if he/she isn’t interested in receiving further emails from you.
Another aspect email recipients don’t realise it this: When you connect with someone on a professional networking site like LinkedIn, you are giving your connections access to your contact details including email address. An entrepreneur could decide to export his LinkedIn contacts into a spreadsheet and send out emails to the list. But he should be courteous enough to explain to the recipients that he/she is connected with them on LinkedIn and that’s how he/she got their email addresses. It helps reduce the tension and make your message more acceptable.
Personally, I do not have problems receiving unsolicited emails; I have problem with the manner in which they send it. I believe that in this Information Age, information is out utmost importance, and information could come through different channels - solicited or unsolicited.
Have a filter to filter out spam. And simply unsubscribe anytime you like without begrudging anyone.
