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Privacy Protection Statements

Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 at 10:11 AM Category: Meryl's Notes Blog No comments

Christopher Knight of Ezine Tips looks at email newsletter privacy protection statements and identifies the good ones and the bad ones. I like this quote:

Whatever you are FOR;
Strengthens YOU.
Whatever you are AGAINST;
Weakens YOU.

I think the best suggestion I’ve heard comes from Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg when they discussed privacy policies. Simply put, “We value your privacy” next to the email box. That way the user doesn’t hesitate as it’s right there. Not many people click on Privacy Policies and then read the mind-numbing policy.

I have it here as a “just in case” because there are folks who want details — but notice that I use the Eisenberg-recommended short format right by the subscription box up there on the right.

Newsletter publishers should also make newsletter archives available rather than hide them or put up barriers to make them hard to find. I won’t subscribe to most newsletters without seeing a sample. That’s just me. Besides, having the archives near the subscription or current newsletter page gets the reader spending more time with you through your site.

A small trend I’ve seen is “Please forward…” in the Subject. That bothers me because I feel like the publisher is telling me just forward this and help us get more subscribers rather than here’s the latest content that we hope you find valuable. I’m all for having a “Forward” link within the newsletter, but not in the Subject. Anyone?