AIIM Turns Permission-Based Marketing On Its Ear

February 26, 2006 Blog No Comments

In these days of opt-in email subscriptions, and permission-based marketing, it’s surprising to see a trade organization that serves the enterprise content management industry bucking the trend. But that’s exactly what the folks at AIIM appear to be doing, perhaps unintentionally.

Recently I received an email from DOC.1Pro, a monthly email newsletter provided by AIIM. Because my inbox is already chocked full of information I don’t read, I thought I’d unsubscribe from DOC.1Pro. I scrolled to the bottom of the email expecting to find the now commonplace “unsubscribe” link, click it, and be automagically removed from the list. But that’s not how AIIM approaches the email unsubscribe process. Instead, at the bottom of the DOC.1Pro newsletter, under the heading “Email Removal Requests”, you’ll see the following confusing announcement in terrible need of being revised.

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Email Removal Requests:

You are receiving this message because AIIM believes you will benefit from this information, not because you are subscribed to an electronic list.

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Despite this ridiculous message which clearly states there is no list to unsubscribe from, DOC.1Pro subscribers can easily and automatically unsubscribe from the mailing list, but only if they are inquisitive enough to continue reading down the page where they will find a mislabeled Update your profile link. Clicking the link takes users to an unsubscribe function where they can enter their email address and with one simple click be removed from the list.

AIIM should definitely work to improve their newsletter subscribe/unsubscribe and membership profile instructions. As they stand today, they are misleading, unprofessional, and confusing.