This happens from time to time. These contacts didn't fill out a form on your site — they were identified through Retention.com after visiting your website and interacting with your brand.
The important thing to know: every contact collected through Retention.com has provided third-party email marketing permissions. This means they have, through their browsing activity and data consent agreements, given permission for their information to be used for marketing purposes by third parties like Retention.com and its customers. This is part of what makes the service compliant.
Why this happens
Retention.com identifies website visitors and passes their contact information to you for email marketing. These contacts:
Visited your website and interacted with your brand
Have provided third-party email marketing permissions through Retention.com's data network
Did not sign up directly through a form on your site
Because they didn't opt in through your own form, they may not recognize why they're hearing from you — even though the contact is legitimate.
What to say to them
Reply clearly and simply. You can use something like:
"You're receiving this email because you visited our website and interacted with our brand. We work with a partner called Retention.com to identify some visitors so we can follow up by email. Retention.com's network collects contact information from users who have agreed to receive third-party marketing — which includes emails like ours. If you'd like to learn more about how this works, you can review our privacy policy [link to your privacy policy]. If you'd like to stop receiving emails from us, you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any of our emails, or opt out of Retention.com's data collection directly at https://app.retention.com/optout"
What to do
Reply clearly and simply — explain they were identified through a partner after visiting your site
Reference your privacy policy — your policy should already disclose that you use third-party tools to identify visitors and may email them
Make opting out easy — every email should have a visible unsubscribe link, and if they ask to be removed, remove them right away
Provide the Retention.com opt-out link — if they want to opt out of being identified in the future, direct them to: https://app.retention.com/optout
Update your privacy policy
If you haven't already, your privacy policy should include language that discloses your use of third-party tools to identify website visitors and email them. This protects you if a recipient questions why they received your email.
Set your expectations
These are earlier-stage visitors who haven't explicitly signed up for your list. Some confusion at the start is normal. The key is handling it cleanly:
Be transparent about how they were contacted
Honor removal requests immediately
Keep your privacy policy up to date
Once handled well, you'll be in a better position to maintain positive engagement while still reaching new potential customers.