You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” All too often I hear from marketers and business owners—those either just starting their email marketing programs or trying to build their lists—who find themselves considering such an unfortunate choice.
This month’s email marketing conundrum explores the problem of how to begin sending to a “never been emailed” list, especially if it contains email addresses that may have been obtained without clear permission, such as from LinkedIn, or gathered offline, such as from business cards, membership lists, contest entry forms, prize drawings at events, etc.
My purpose is to present an approach for successfully emailing such a list while avoiding rookie mistakes and pitfalls.
Next time, I’ll explore the more complicated conundrum of how (and whether) to email an opt-out list—i.e., a list of people you have no current or past relationship with at all.
For now, let’s start with this well-intentioned but short-sighted approach of seeking forgiveness rather than permission.
The Scenario: A ‘Never Been Emailed’ list
I come across many small-to-midsize business owners actively collecting email addresses from prospects, networking contacts, and clients alike—only to seemingly be saving those addresses for a rainy day.
The problem is, if you don’t already have an active email marketing program in place, new additions to your list (or those addresses you obtained months if not years ago) can easily go stale precisely because you’re not sending communications on a regular basis.
Why do email addresses go bad? People change jobs, move, switch Internet providers, and pass through natural life stages (like graduating college, getting married or divorced, or retiring) that result in email address changes.
It’s not merely email accounts that can be abandoned, changed, or closed; permission itself also ages and erodes:
- People grant permission to receive email from a brand or company, and if they don’t soon afterward receive an initial message from the marketer, they may forget they ever agreed to receive email in the first place.
- Or, they might be raving fans of your products and services at the outset (think new parents here), but as life goes on and your relevancy to them wanes, their willingness to receive your email does, too.
The Approach
If you have a “never been emailed” list that may potentially be stale, the first campaign to consider sending to it is a “permission pass,” the term for a permission request asking people to either stay on the list or opt out.
Metaphorically, you’re giving those who may no longer interested in your email (or who can’t remember whether they ever were) a chance to get off the train before it leaves the station.
Here are a few components of an effective permission-pass campaign:
- Restate or remind subscribers how they came to be on your list. For example, “at our open house in June you signed up to receive email, ” or “we gathered your email address from our monthly prize drawing form.”
- Value, value, value! Explain the fantastic (and hopefully exclusive) opportunities they’ll receive by being on your email list. What’s in it for them? Special savings? Exclusive content? Advance access or notice? Lay it on thick but be truthful, and get right to the point.
- Clarity! Tell them exactly what, if anything, they have to do to stay on your list and what they must do to be removed. Legally, you’re required to have an Internet-based unsubscribe process present within every marketing email message you send, so of course it should be in your permission pass—but you’ll probably need to give it prominent placement rather than relegate it to the usual small print at the bottom.
- Set and manage expectations. If they are going to stay on your list, let subscribers know what kind of communications and especially what sort of frequency they can expect. Better yet, if you’re launching a rich and diverse email program with many choices, direct subscribers to a sign-up or email preferences center (like this) to help them make their decisions.
Filed under: Email List, email marketing, Optin Emails, TargetOptinCustomers.com Tagged: Electronic mailing list, Email address, Email client, email lists, email marketing, Email service provider, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, mlm marketing, Mobile device
