Because I’ve had my email address for almost 20 years, I get a lot of marketing emails spam.  A LOT of spam.  Gmail filters out a nice chunk, and I use an Apple Mail add-in called Spam Sieve to filter out another sizeable percentage of it.  Despite that fact, a lot of unwanted email still reaches my inbox.

For the past week, I’ve deliberately been clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email to take me off of that particular list.  Some of them make it very easy, and some of them try to throw up roadblocks.  This one from Responsify is particularly, uh, “challenging:”

Yes, a link in that microscopic text at the bottom is how you’re supposed to unsubscribe. They’re betting that most people won’t bother to navigate the obstacles required to get off of their email list.  I scaled the email to be larger and (with my nose about two inches from the screen)  I found the unsubscribe link.

After a week, it’s too soon to know whether I’ve made a dent in the unwanted emails.  I’m wondering if they will reach a critical mass and if the time I’m spending unsubscribing would be better spent hitting the delete key.  Will email as we know it become unusable because of spam?  

We make software products that help our customers visualize and analyze their project schedules, and we’ve used email marketing campaigns from time to time.  In my mind, it’s like we’re one person in a stadium of 80,000 shouting at the top of our lungs, trying to be heard above everyone else.  I’m not saying that email campaigns are pointless, but we’ve found other marketing channels that work better for us.  Five personal emails might be more effective than 500 “eBlast” emails.

I’m curious to know what you think.  Email me?  😉