Asking my clients for their name?

I have some tousands emails of own clients but no name

[Kubano]

Hi there,

when I came to my new company i discovered that the Email DB for the Newsletter contains some 40.000 emails of clients, but no names!

What woukd you do?
Would you send them an email asking for their name, so in the future I can have more personalized relationship with them...

or.. would you keep sending them news and offers saying "Dear Client,.."?

Thanks

[The Contractor]

Why not send an email asking them to update their information (not sure what these clients are or if it's a simple newsletter subscription)? Include a link to a form containing the necessary or already aquired info, but also have a form field(s) for their first and last name.

[goodroi]

Also you can add a link to each newsletter inviting the user to personalize it. Ask for personal information and also allow them to pick favorite color schemes, type of content/ads anything that can give the user more cotnrol in exchange for the personal info. You can also launch a contest which requires personal information.

[kazecoder]

I am with goodroi on this one. I would address the email with "Dear Valued Client..." to make them feel more special.

[Kubano]

good tipps! thanks!

[geekay]

At least in the European Union you are not allowed to register more personal information than necessary for providing the service in question.

Names are clearly not necessary for distributing an e-mail newsletter.

[mack]

This can be quite a tricky one, and I guess there are a lot of companies in a similar situation. Like was suggested before an "update your contact information" email being sent out seams like a good suggestion.

In any opt in list there will always be people who really dont read your mailings. If you build a second database from the users who co-operate and fill in their new details then you can be fairly sure you have a list containng the active members.

Mack.