The importance of using expert email marketing solutions has been highlighted by a colossal error made by American newspaper The New York Times, Reuters reports.

An error with a distribution list has resulted in the newspaper not only suffering financially, so it has been speculated, but reputationally also.

An email intended to go out to 300 recently unsubscribed readers was mistakenly sent out to 8.6 million people who had registered their email addresses with the paper.

The email was a marketing ploy, offering a 50 per cent discount on subscription fees for 16 weeks, to entice readers back. Unfortunately, it hit the inboxes of many current readers, many of whom promptly set about cancelling their subscription to take advantage of the deal.

However, in an unbelievable error of judgement, The New York Times sent out a message via Twitter, claiming that the email had not been sent by them and to ignore it.

Naturally, this sparked fears that the newspaper had been hacked.

By this point, the damage had been done, according to The Guardian. The paper honoured discounts up until early afternoon, at what can only be surmised as a huge cost, before confessing.

An explanation made by spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy read: “An email was sent earlier today from The New York Times in error.

“This email should have been sent to a very small number of subscribers, but instead was sent to a vast distribution list made up of people who had previously provided their email address to The New York Times.

Referring to the tweet, Ms Murphy said it was posted in “error and we regret the mistake”.