I recently got suckered into subscribing to NYTimes because I wanted to read an article behind a paywall and I couldn't find an easy and quick alternative. I didn't mind the $2.00 a month. But I took offense to what happened after I paid.
Over the course of the next 5 days, they sent me 5 onboarding marketing emails and I could not opt out of any of them. What's worse is their message in the footer.
You are receiving this one-time series of onboarding messages over a 14-day period because they provide essential information about your new subscription. Because the messages are about your relationship with The Times, you are receiving them regardless of whether you are opted in to receive marketing emails from The New York Times.
They probably think it's a clever marketing copy. It's not. It made me feel powerless. It put a sour taste in my mouth. It made them reek of desperation. It made me go out of my way to check that my subscription does not auto-renew. The irony is that had they included a simple unsubscribe link or not sent me anything at all, I probably wouldn't have bothered to check.
Their copy makes it seem like they know they're being coy. And still they choose to not follow CAN-SPAM best practices. And for what? A few more eyeballs and clicks. I'm aware media and journalism sites have been getting hit hard over the last few years, but is it this bad? It makes me wonder if NYTimes is unique in employing these tactics.
Email is near and dear to my heart. My own business uses email as a key growth channel, so I understand its importance. But I make sure every marketing email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Gmail users also see a one-click unsubscribe button at the top. I also provide a link which recipients can click to initiate the off-boarding flow in case they wish to permanently close their account. I add this on some transactional emails too.
I don't consider these things to be anti-growth. On the contrary, I consider them to be growth drivers. They help keep my email sending reputation high and my email list clean. Customers feel like they're in the driver's seat, which is ever more important in today's climate and probably helps my brand. Customers who wish to discontinue their relationship with my business can do so without fuss, so they're less likely to badmouth me.
I earn a small fraction of what NYTimes earns. If I'm not desperate, why are they?