FreshAddress has introduced a service, Opt-In E-mail Appending, that it says offers clients guaranteed deliverable e-mail addresses matched to customer databases on an opt-in basis.
The service allows end users to send potential subscribers e-mails that contain a “yes, e-mail me” link. If a recipient does not respond as directed, he will not be added to the opt-in subscriber list.
The traditional opt-out standard in e-mail communications requires an individual to actively request “do not e-mail me,” says FreshAddress CEO Bill Kaplan. The sender therefore considers the consumer’s inaction consent. Not so the consumer, though, who may subsequently report the sender as a spammer. Complaints can ultimately lead to ISPs blocking all messages from the sender, even those to customers who requested the e-mails.
“A few of our clients have asked for this service in the past, and we were happy to provide it on request,” Kaplan explains, adding that its clients’ concerns with e-mail privacy and protection laws prompted the company to make it a regular service offering.
Kaplan says FreshAddress’s licensed data include e-mail addresses of consumers who have opted in to receive future mailings from at least one retailer. Those lists are scrubbed to remove closed but unmonitored addresses, the FTC’s wireless block list, and those that appear on Spam trap and problem address lists.