A few weeks ago, I attended an event sponsored by a local association here in Denver. About a week after the event, I started getting e-mail solicitations from vendors who sponsored the event as well as other vendors who obviously bought or otherwise acquired the list from the association. I do not recall giving the association permission to pass my e-mail address along to their vendors, nor did any of the vendors ask for me to opt in when they first sent an e-mail. They simply viewed this as an opportunity to hit a new audience and did it.

I consider e-mail like this an unsolicited and unwelcome intrusion, and I’m probably in the majority here. Which means if you are sending e-mails to people who didn’t specifically ask for them from you, who you aren’t even sure if they are a good customer for you, then you are doing irreparable damage to your brand. See, I remember companies that e-mail me like this and will tell my friends “Oh, yeah, they’re the guys that spammed me a few months ago.”

Make people want to be on your e-mail list and let them choose you, because when you put them on your list and choose them, they will probably come to resent it.