Share Your Email List at Your Own Peril

Now and then companies feel compelled to send a blanket untargeted email to everyone whose email address they have ever acquired. Well, control that urge. But if you’re going to do that, here’s a hint: Don’t share your email list with all of your recipients.  If you put everyone’s address in the “To:” line, you’ve just given your list away – and possibly worse!

I received an email from a Chicago public relations firm announcing their office move. In this email, they gifted me with over 130 email addresses of clients, prospects and friends. Thank you. Pretty stupid I thought. And from a PR firm yet. Wow.

Not more than 2 hours passed on the same day when I received an email from Lewis Lin at Google. Lewis addressed his email to me and over 300 of my Google marketing peers. This time, war broke out as opportunists among the 300 began to solicit the list they’d just received. Aside from the emails going back to Lewis telling him what an idiot he is, this one message among the skirmishers captured the general sentiment: “Contact me again and I will make sure that our lawyers contact you…Failing this … will result in me adding your domain to black lists.”

The best practice, of course, is to send targeted emails to opt-in subscribers who both expect and value your email. Preferably, you will send these emails using an email service provider that provides the technology to properly deliver and track the delivery results. But if you feel the need to blast your trusted business partners with an email, do yourself a favor and conceal the recipients. To do otherwise puts your organization, its reputation and your proprietary client email list in peril.