Recently I’ve had conversations with two separate clients about email marketing and permission. The short version is that these clients want to collect email addresses for marketing, but they don’t see the benefit of going with in email service provider like Constant Contact right now.
Either they don’t have plans to begin sending email newsletters right away, or they want to see how many people subscribe before they invest the effort into creating email newsletter content.
They figure as long as they’re getting permission to market to these people later, what’s the difference?
Part of the problem may lie in how they define permission.
As Beth Deutsche, my project manager, just quipped, there’s a
difference between "active" and "passive" permission. I’m not sure that
these terms accurately describe the difference in getting permission,
but we’ll stick with them for now.
Active Email Marketing Permission
As
part of an email newsletter or marketing signup process, there’s
usually a confirmation step. This often comes in the form of an email
with a link that the subscriber clicks on to "confirm" that they indeed
wish to receive future emails from this company.
Passive Email Marketing Permission
If
you’re collecting emails for some future marketing campaign, you may
choose to use a contact form with a opt-in box (unchecked) that allows
people to request your email marketing or newsletter. You can keep that
list of emails separately, waiting for the day when your email
newsletter is ready to go.
If you open an account with an email service provider (ESP)
at that point you can import the list of emails (and other data, if you
so desire) into your account. You can also choose to send out your
email newsletters through your own email or Web site…although I
recommend against it.
However, here’s the catch. Even though you have gotten permission from the recipients, your ESP doesn’t have confirmation of those recipients. Ethically
and morally you may have done your due diligence, but technologically
you may as well have used email harvesting software!
A Real-Life Example
One
of our clients was offering a helpful, one-of-a-kind survey online. To
complete the survey you had to provide contact information and agree
that this company could market to you, although you could opt-out of
the marketing at any point. There was also a link to a privacy policy.
In other words, everything was above board.
We took the 9,000 or
so names we collected and imported them into an account we opened at an
ESP. We created an email campaign that would be very relevant to the
people who completed the survey…you know, the ones who gave us
permission to market to them?
Out of those 9,000 people six complained to their ISP’s that we were spamming them.
Although we never knew who they were, our ESP removed them from the
list. Luckily, our ESP didn’t bar us from using their system.
Six
spam reports may not seem like a lot, but just one can get your account
suspended, or if you send your email campaigns out from your own site,
get your Web site shut down. (This has happened to a client of ours…before we came on board with them.)
Also, because we didn’t have a "confirmation" that we could send to them, probably a larger number than normal never received the email because it didn’t get past their ISP’s filter or their own.
If you didn’t know, an email campaign from an ESP will have better delivery rates if the addresses have been "confirmed."
As
a "best practice" we include information at the top of the email
campaigns explaining why the recipient is receiving the email, how to
"confirm" their interest if they haven’t already, and how to
unsubscribe if they request.
Now, getting an official opt-in
confirmation may not prevent every spam report, but it will certainly
cut the chances of one down significantly. In addition, you now have an
e-paper trail.
In Conclusion
Constant Contact
offers two free months of email service provision. Until your list hits
50 subscribers, there’s no monthly fee. Some other ESP’s may offer
similar ramp up services. (Topica does not, which was one reason we no
longer recommend them for small business.)
Based on these numbers, I’d recommend planning for success with an email newsletter, and getting your permissions up front.
Rich Brooks
Email Marketing Guru
