I hate e-mail capture

I started out thinking this morning that I didn't like marketing, and I'm starting to think I don't like specific things, like email capture.

I learned this term yesterday, e-mail capture. It's (as I understand it) that trick where a website says, usually in a little box at the bottom of an article, "sign up for our newsletter/mailing list and get our Sampler Content FREE!" It's supposed to generate more leads and draw people in with free stuff.

I hate e-mail capture. I see people all the time complaining about how much e-mail they get and I can sympathize. I've finally gotten my inboxes at close to zero, but only by regularly ruthlessly deleting anything I won't need and don't want to act on, and by unsubscribing from things regularly when they no longer match what I need. E-mail capture drives me nuts and I absolutely hate it. If you want to offer me something for free, just do it.

I get that people have incentives to do this. I hear marketing departments give bonuses for "contact leads" or getting contact info for people that might be interested. Regardless I hate that e-mail capture continues to exist.

I might be okay with some other parts of marketing, but I hate e-mail capture.