E-mail marketing problem

If customer forgets he opted in?

[geekay]

We have a sought-after niche product in preparation. Last year we put up a form on the widget's site so that potential customers could request to be notified by e-mail when the item is available. We can't take definitive orders many months in advance.

But now I've been having after thoughts. It's only maybe 200 notification e-mails, but I'm afraid some folks (private persons) have forgotten all about their own request made long ago, and will consider this e-mail spam.

What do you think, should I better trash all the requests and stop taking new ones? The majority are Americans. I've heard it's not uncommon that people forget they once opted in, and then file spam complaints.

[treeline]

Some people certainly forget they opted in and are nasty about it.

However, some are probably eagerly awating your product announcement and would be disappointed to be left out. So I'd look for some way to personalize the emails a bit, and let them know what's going on.

If you change your system to require them to respond to an initial, immediate confirmation email you'll eliminate people signing other people up, and increase the likelihood they remember who you are later.