The other day I received yet another political email message sent to my personal account. I’ve grumbled about such messages before, and was about to get irritated again over getting an email regarding a city where I no longer even live. Irrelevant emails are the worse kind!

But then, as I scrolled to the bottom and prepared to hit the “report spam” button, I noticed it: “Unsubscribe to this list.” I hit it, and was told I would no longer receive emails from this political organization. Yay!

The moral of the story: You should always, always act in the interests of what the consumer/message recipient might want–even if you’re not legally bound to do so.

See, while we’re all familiar with digital marketing laws and best practices (if not, check out this white paper for all you need to know), political groups don’t have to be. They’re exempt from the permission requirements of commercial email. Thus, they can send all the email they want, whether or not denizens are active voters. Because of their exemption status, such senders don’t have an “opt-out” on their messages.

Although  they don’t have to offer opt-out, political message-senders should. After all, they’re trying to get on the message-recipient’s best side and convince them to vote their way. If they’re courteous enough visibly allow opt-outs, they’ll generate goodwill from the contituent. Even if the voter opts out of future emails, the voter may still agree with the message–and vote as desired come ballot time!

Or in my case, I just might mention the message-sender’s concerns to friends who still live in that town. Good word-of-mouth from a satisfied member of the public: That’s something all marketers strive to achieve.

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm

“I’d rather you text me”