About Data Use and Privacy

This may sound strange coming from a business owner, but few things annoy me more than being marketed to. Specifically, email marketing. In fact, it happened to me just this morning. I ordered some beard product samples online (you know, the “just pay shipping” kind…mine are always free, btw) from a company who shall not be named. Within seconds of completing my order, I had 3 emails from them. An order confirmation (cool), a “subscribe to us” email (meh), and a “don’t you want to buy more stuff” email (ugh). I haven’t unsubscribed yet because I want to see how frequent their emails are.

Here’s the thing – I understand the value of staying in touch with your customers. I understand how, in a crowded marketplace, businesses need to do everything they can to keep customers engaged. While I appreciate how email marketing can help a business, I refuse to bombard my customers with useless emails and stupid bullshit. I would probably be more profitable if I did, but this is something I feel strongly about not only as a consumer, but as a business. My feeling is that, when I order something online, that is not giving permission to be on some email marketing list – that was just me buying your product. I feel like email marketing should always be an opt in situation rather than opt out.

At the bottom of the Damn Yankee Beard website, there is a space to sign up for emails from me. If you want to get my emails (so far, there’s only been one), great. I’m happy to have you on board. If you don’t want emails from me, I totally respect that. But what I’m not going to do is assume that, since you bought a bottle of my beard oil, you want to receive constant emails from me. If you did, you would have signed up for them. As a business owner, I would much rather have a small, loyal group of customers who opted into my emails than a large group of people who would rather just delete my emails than go to the trouble of unsubscribing.

So, back to my sample pack order this morning from Company X. As I was filling in my shipping information, I noticed that it was required for me to enter a phone number. Hopefully, this is to assist in contacting me if there’s a problem with my order, and not to text me “special deals.” This goes back to my feelings on data use and privacy. When you order from Damn Yankee, I’ll only ask the absolute minimum amount of information to get your order shipped. Order confirmations can either come via email or text message, but I’ll never ask anything else. Would my business benefit from knowing more information about my customers? Absolutely. But, it is important to me that you feel comfortable making a transaction with Damn Yankee online, and that you trust I’m not selling your personal data to the highest bidder. I take your personal data and privacy seriously. Always will.

Buying things online in general is an exercise in trust. You never quite know who you’re dealing with, or what they’re doing with your information. But I promise you this – Damn Yankee Beard Company will never do anything with your personal information other than ship your orders. I will never sign you up for any marketing programs without first getting your approval. My business would probably be more profitable if I did, but I refuse to do that. This is what Damn Yankee’s No Bullshit policy is all about - your private information stays private. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out anytime.