Email appending, also known as e-appending, is a
marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
practice that involves taking known
customer data
Customer data or consumer data refers to all personal, Behaviorism, behavioural, and demographic data that is collected by marketing companies and departments from their customer base.
To some extent, data collection from customers intrudes into c ...
(first name, last name, and postal address) and matching it against a vendor's database to obtain email addresses. The purpose is to grow one's email subscriber list with the intent of sending customers information via email instead of through traditional mail. Email appending is a controversial practice in the
email marketing
Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to s ...
world, with critics claiming that sending email to people who never explicitly opted-in is against best practices.
An email appending process involves either a business or consumer database made up of contacts including their name, address and company name
or business contacts If the company wants to expand into email communication, then they can involve a service provider that has a database of email addresses in order to merge the data and append business or consumer email addresses to their existing file. In this way they can have an updated database with the current email address of individuals on the list. The success of email appending depends on the quality of both databases being merged.
Like other forms of
Database marketing Database marketing is a form of direct marketing using databases of customers or potential customers to generate personalized communications in order to promote a product or service for marketing purposes. The method of communication can be any addr ...
, marketing materials sent using e-pending may be considered spam. Mailers using appending by definition do not have consent of the individuals on their lists, since the individuals did not disclose their email addresses to begin with. Mail sent by appending methods therefore is
Opt-out The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This option is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as e-mail marketing or direct mail. A list of thos ...
instead of
Opt-in e-mail.
In September 2011, The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) released a position paper stating the practice of email appending is in direct violation to their values and is an abusive practice.
Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group Position on Email Appending.
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:E-Mail Appending
Appending