E-Appending or email appending is a practice used in marketing and involves using known data from a customer, such as the first name, last name, or postal address. It also to matches against a vendor’s database in order to obtain email addresses. This practice is used to grow the email subscriber list with the intention of sending information of customers through email instead of mailing it the traditional way. Even though e-appending is a growing marketing practice, it is also a controversial practice in the email marketing world. This practice has left many critics claiming that this is a practice that lacks the best way to market because emails are sent to people who did not opt in for them.
The process of email appending includes the database of a business or consumer made up of contacts with their names, address, and company name. If the company wants to expand communication through email, then they can always find a service provider that will help them merge data together. This process will bring the data together to append business or consumer emails for existing files. After applying this process, they will have access to an updated database with current email information of individuals on the list. The email appending process success depends on the quality of the merged databases.
Although this process of marketing is a growing trend, this form of marketing using e-append may be considered spam. If mailers use the append service, then they will find that no consent was given by the individuals on their list. Therefore, sent mail using the append services is Opt-out instead of Opt-in-email.
