Loren McDonald on FISUE Syndrome


Yesterday, Loren McDonald blogged about "FISUE Syndrome." What is it? It's where a recipient "Forgot I Signed Up for Email." He writes: "Was That Email Spam? Or Just Spam-Like? Earlier this year, I received an email from a presentation company that I was sure I had never heard of nor done business with. [...] I didn't know who this company was or whether I knowingly opted in for email, and I still don't."

He makes good points on how senders can avoid FISUE Syndrome. I'm drawn to one in particular: "From/ Sender Names: Of the six emails I had received, the company used five different "From" names. Bad. Pick a simple, logical "From" name and stick with it."

I'd like to add to that one, because it's a pet peeve of mine. If I sign up for emails from a company, does that mean I'm going to recognize the name of the person who emails me? If you're sending to an email list, do recipients on that list know an individual at the company, or do they only know the company?

I run into this enough that I occasionally blog about it. In that case, Boxee was sending me an email that I had consented to receive, but I had no idea that the head guy's name is Avner Ronen. If I don't recognize you, I'm going to think it's spam, and I'm going to report it as spam. Lack of recognition is going to drive higher spam complaints and deliverability issues are likely to follow.
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