The new rules of email marketing share a core attribute they are customer-centric. This means they take an outside-in perspective, from the vantage point of the customer rather than the company; and second, they recognize that the value a company creates must come from current and future customers.
The new 1to1 rules below articulate and apply these concepts specifically to email marketing.
Build Your Reputation, Not Your List
Back in the late 1990s, IBM took a chance. It created the IBM Software Premiere Club, an opt-in marketing arm for software purchaser’s at large companies. By abandoning the common opt-out model, IBM put power in the hands of customers at the cost of limiting the number of contacts on its email marketing rolls. The results: IBM’s click-through-rate jumped to nearly 20%.x No legit marketer wants to be viewed as a spammer. Yet, many still operate in a “quantity over quality” mindset, and haven’t made the transition IBM did. “They might use opt-in, but a lot of marketers are still more concerned with, ‘How can I add more email addresses to my list?’ and ‘How many emails can I send per hour?’” says Richard Beach, Delivery Management Officer, and Right Now Technologies. The broadcast approach isn’t working anymore. Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) have become increase singly diligent (and successful) in their attempts to protect their customers from the onslaught of bulk email. The algorithms and approaches used by each ISP are closely held secrets, but all the major players employ some form of controlled email filtering. AOL, for example, blocks about 75% of the roughly two billion emails it receives each day. To make it through, smart
Email marketers use authentication mechanisms, in which their identity is validated by the ISP; and accreditation procedures, in which they secure the status of a “white-listed” source to ensure delivery by the ISP.
Reputation = brand
In this environment, the reputation of the sender becomes paramount. It’s not a warm-and-fuzzy concept. It is an empirical and quantified assessment of marketing practices made by an ISP or by third-party organizations like TRUSTe. Unfortunately, reputation is a fragile asset that is easily damaged.
It can happen when individuals who receive the email click the “this is spam” button, which alerts the ISP to the behavior of the marketer, lowers the reputation score, and increases the chances that future emails will be blocked before even reaching the inbox. In the war against spam, companies that specialize in the
maintenance of blacklists purposely plant email addresses where spammers are likely to find and harvest them. These “spam trap” address are indistinguishable from valid addresses, and they find their way onto email lists rented by marketers in their quest to broadcast their messages more widely. However, when an ISP detects that a marketer is sending to a known spam trap address, it further cuts into reputation. Also,
that reputation is maintained at the Internet domain level (e.g., ‘www.Company.com’), which means a damaged reputation doesn’t just hurt the current campaign—it injures the brand, too.
>>Taking Action Required
Grow your list organically: Populate your email list with individuals who have expressed an explicit interest to receive your communications. It requires at least moving from an optout to an opt-in policy, and ideally to the practice of using confirmed opt-in (in which individuals receive a notification email confirming the opt-in) or double opt-in (in which the individual must actively reply to the follow-up notification email).
Make it easy to unsubscribe: Marketers cringe at the thought of helping customers to unsubscribe from their email list, but it is in their own best interest to make the process prominent and painless. If a recipient doesn’t unsubscribe but instead uses the “this spam” button to suppress your emails, future emails will be blocked, never reaching the inbox.
Never stop scrubbing: Ongoing list hygiene is essential given that annual email address turnover is 30%. Touch base at least semi-annually to confirm the individual still wants to hear from you, and let customers dictate the frequency of contact going forward.
Be trustworthy: More trust means more business. Online merchants who are trusted, for example, have greater success in soliciting and receiving self-reported information from customers that enables sharper personalization and targeting. Permission-based email using confirmed opt-in, an easy to find and clear privacy policy, and avoiding using “pre-checked” subscription boxes are a good start.
The new 1to1 rules below articulate and apply these concepts specifically to email marketing.
Build Your Reputation, Not Your List
Back in the late 1990s, IBM took a chance. It created the IBM Software Premiere Club, an opt-in marketing arm for software purchaser’s at large companies. By abandoning the common opt-out model, IBM put power in the hands of customers at the cost of limiting the number of contacts on its email marketing rolls. The results: IBM’s click-through-rate jumped to nearly 20%.x No legit marketer wants to be viewed as a spammer. Yet, many still operate in a “quantity over quality” mindset, and haven’t made the transition IBM did. “They might use opt-in, but a lot of marketers are still more concerned with, ‘How can I add more email addresses to my list?’ and ‘How many emails can I send per hour?’” says Richard Beach, Delivery Management Officer, and Right Now Technologies. The broadcast approach isn’t working anymore. Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) have become increase singly diligent (and successful) in their attempts to protect their customers from the onslaught of bulk email. The algorithms and approaches used by each ISP are closely held secrets, but all the major players employ some form of controlled email filtering. AOL, for example, blocks about 75% of the roughly two billion emails it receives each day. To make it through, smart
Email marketers use authentication mechanisms, in which their identity is validated by the ISP; and accreditation procedures, in which they secure the status of a “white-listed” source to ensure delivery by the ISP.
Reputation = brand
In this environment, the reputation of the sender becomes paramount. It’s not a warm-and-fuzzy concept. It is an empirical and quantified assessment of marketing practices made by an ISP or by third-party organizations like TRUSTe. Unfortunately, reputation is a fragile asset that is easily damaged.
It can happen when individuals who receive the email click the “this is spam” button, which alerts the ISP to the behavior of the marketer, lowers the reputation score, and increases the chances that future emails will be blocked before even reaching the inbox. In the war against spam, companies that specialize in the
maintenance of blacklists purposely plant email addresses where spammers are likely to find and harvest them. These “spam trap” address are indistinguishable from valid addresses, and they find their way onto email lists rented by marketers in their quest to broadcast their messages more widely. However, when an ISP detects that a marketer is sending to a known spam trap address, it further cuts into reputation. Also,
that reputation is maintained at the Internet domain level (e.g., ‘www.Company.com’), which means a damaged reputation doesn’t just hurt the current campaign—it injures the brand, too.
>>Taking Action Required
Grow your list organically: Populate your email list with individuals who have expressed an explicit interest to receive your communications. It requires at least moving from an optout to an opt-in policy, and ideally to the practice of using confirmed opt-in (in which individuals receive a notification email confirming the opt-in) or double opt-in (in which the individual must actively reply to the follow-up notification email).
Make it easy to unsubscribe: Marketers cringe at the thought of helping customers to unsubscribe from their email list, but it is in their own best interest to make the process prominent and painless. If a recipient doesn’t unsubscribe but instead uses the “this spam” button to suppress your emails, future emails will be blocked, never reaching the inbox.
Never stop scrubbing: Ongoing list hygiene is essential given that annual email address turnover is 30%. Touch base at least semi-annually to confirm the individual still wants to hear from you, and let customers dictate the frequency of contact going forward.
Be trustworthy: More trust means more business. Online merchants who are trusted, for example, have greater success in soliciting and receiving self-reported information from customers that enables sharper personalization and targeting. Permission-based email using confirmed opt-in, an easy to find and clear privacy policy, and avoiding using “pre-checked” subscription boxes are a good start.
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