If you do any kind of email marketing, the tool you use to get the job done matters and not just in terms of features.

Given your business’s internal and customer data will be stored on your email platform, and you also need your email provider to help maximise income as a major growth strategy — a lot is riding on the quality, performance and trustworthiness of your email provider. 

By switching to an ethical email provider, you can look to avoid the likes of data breaches, random price hikes and other undesirable things that you can do without as a business. 

Lots of email platforms exist these days. So whether you are in search of Gmail alternatives or Mailchimp alternatives, here are some of the top aspects that make an email provider ethical. 

Customer-Centric Approach

There really is nothing worse than feeling like another number when you rely on a particular tool or service as a business. 

Maybe you don’t know how to use a certain feature, or there is a huge technical problem with the server. If you can’t get answers and more importantly a resolution fast, then it’s your campaigns that will suffer.

While chatbot customer service is okay to a point, eliminating humans altogether is putting profits first and can be extremely frustrating when you just want to speak to someone.

Instead, an ethical email provider will:

• Have a dedicated customer service channel that is highly visible and easy to access on their website. 

• Use customer engagement tools to keep track of your conversation as a team, so that you don’t have to repeat yourself like a parrot if you need to reach out again (other talkative birds also exist).

• Be available to talk over a video or phone call, especially if you pay for a large scale business plan.

• Pass on any common issues to the wider marketing, product or development team because they care about giving you the best customer experience. 

• They may also go the extra mile and create customer support documents as we do here at EcoSend

While we’re on the topic of a customer-centric approach, unless you need to scale up your plan, ethical email providers avoid random price hikes.

In cases where price hikes are unavoidable, customers should be given plenty of notice and also be made aware of other plans so that they don’t pay for more than what they need. 

Data Privacy & Compliance With Anti-Spam Laws 

Ethical email providers care about anti-spam laws by complying with the regulations as a business, and also ensuring their customers do the same.

Various laws exist, although the main ones to watch are the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR. In short, email senders must protect data. They should avoid using email scraper tools along with unsolicited mass email sending.

All ethical email platforms should also insist you use your real name and include a link to unsubscribe within your campaigns.

Beyond just complying with laws and regulations, avoiding spam practices can have endless other benefits for your campaigns. This includes higher open rates, better engagement and ultimately, improved conversion rates.

So before signing up to an email provider, check their anti-spam policies and overall ethics. If the platform doesn’t insist on good sender practices, this can negatively impact your sender reputation just by association. 

Eco-Friendly Email To Reduce The Carbon Footprint Of Your Campaigns

Was today the day you learned that emails have a carbon footprint?

Every email sent emits up to 26g of CO₂. With over 300 billion emails sent per day, that soon adds up.

Ethical email providers not only acknowledge the carbon footprint of emails, but look to solve the issue within their own platform.

For instance, at EcoSend, our systems run on renewable energy sources and we plant trees on behalf of our customers. 

As for why the ‘big’ email providers don’t do the same, well your guess is as good as ours. But here at EcoSend, the whole reason why founded our company is because we wanted to offer a greener alternative for businesses to address this hidden yet huge problem. 

Corporate Responsibility

Does your email provider care more about than just making a profit?

Ethical email providers have a strong sense of corporate responsibility, such as donating employee time to good causes through CSR days. Or undertaking similar initiatives that help the local community or environmental causes.

The gold standard to look out for is companies that are B Corps. EcoSend is currently working towards B Corp certification, but in the meantime, we’ve been inspired by the best B Corps for 2024, with many on our list being EcoSend customers. 

Why corporate responsibility matters because if profit is the only focus, that company isn’t doing its bit to help others. Given just a small amount of time can make a huge difference, we think an ethical company is one that actively gives back.

EcoSend - Start Your Free Trial Of Our Sustainable Email Platform Today

Are you in search of an ethical email provider that is refreshing for all the right reasons?

We know lots of email providers exist. But at EcoSend, we’ve actually been in the email marketing space as long as HubSpot.

The reason we founded EcoSend is that we wanted to concentrate our efforts on eco-friendly email marketing to help the planet while also helping you succeed at your email campaigns.

New to EcoSend? Give us a try with a free 7 day trial. You can also get to know us by signing up for the EcoSend Weekly. 

Want to talk about your email marketing needs as a business with us?

Book a free demo and we’ll meet you there shortly over a cup of tea! ☕️