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ALL ABOUT EMAIL
Ask
first!
What's the essential first
step when it comes to building relationships via email? Getting permission!
Unless your email communication with prospects and customers is requested, it
runs the risk of generating significantly lower response rates -- and even
annoying your target audience. Ensuring your emails are requested is becoming
more and more important as the number of emails cramming in-boxes continues to
rise. Jupiter Communications estimates that each email recipient in the U.S.
will receive an average of 1,600 commercial emails in 2005, not including the
4,000 other emails they'll receive from different sources.
The one sure way to cut through the clutter of an over-stuffed inbox is to
ensure that your prospects and customers can control what, and how often they
receive an email from you.
How To Do It
1. Request Opt-In
Getting permission, or
"opt-in," from your prospects and customers can be accomplished in
many ways. Even if you are not currently communicating with them via email, it's
important to begin getting opt-in now - because odds are, you'll be touching
them with email very soon. You can ensure your emails are requested by asking
for email addresses at practically every touch point you have with them. A few
instances where you can provide incentives for submitting email addresses
include invoices and statements, within your call center, at your retail
locations and, of course, on your website. No matter where you ask for opt-in,
your opt-in rate will improve whenever you provide an incentive, clearly state
the benefits of opting in, and whenever possible, explain clearly and concisely
what your privacy policy is. (For more on privacy policies, reference the
Campaign Headquarters portion of the responsys.com website at www.responsys.com/campaignhq/default.asp).
2. Avoid Over Communicating
Once you have permission,
regard it as sacred. Keeping that permission over time will depend on how well
you execute on the other four email marketing imperatives you'll learn about.
Once you have opt-in and take advantage of the efficiencies and effectiveness of
customer communication via email, you'll look for as many ways as possible to
use email. As you begin to send more and multiple types of messages to your
customers, it becomes increasingly important to enable the customer to manage
his or her relationship with you and to implement rules that will mitigate
sending too many emails within a short timeframe. Care must be taken to temper
the number of emails your recipients receive and the application you use to send
requested emails should be capable of moderating the frequency of communication.
To illustrate, take into
consideration a fictitious click-and-mortar wine retailer we'll call Planet Vino
with a well traveled website and many store locations in a number of countries.
Planet Vino routinely emails a unique newsletter every Monday to customers who
have expressed an interest in a particular wine varietal. It also sends out a
sale notification for each wine varietal once per month. A thank you message is
emailed after every order placed on the website, and customers with orders over
$150 receive a special email with a 10% discount on their next purchase. A wine
varietal-specific satisfaction survey is emailed every six months.
You can already see that without careful consideration, and an email application
capable of assembling dynamic newsletters, a segment of customers interested in
two or more wine varietals runs the risk of being inundated with far too many
emails. The likelihood of an increased opt-out rate increases, and more
importantly, many of those opt-outs could include the customers with purchases
of over $150 dollars.
3. Enable Easy Opt-Out
Just as with opt-ins,
requests for opt-out must be handled with care. In addition to enabling
prospects and customers to control the information they get from you, enabling
them to easily opt-out is part of a sound permission marketing strategy. Make
sure your email marketing application enables one-click unsubscribes, has proven
capability to track and manage opt-ins and opt-outs, and can clearly demonstrate
the ability to handle last minute opt-outs. People opt-out for various reasons,
and it does not necessarily mean they want to terminate their relationship with
you. But one thing's for sure: if you don't handle the opt-out requests
flawlessly, you not only run the risk of losing the off-line customer
relationships, but more importantly, of coping with bad word-of-mouth and even
fines.
A Word About Double Opt-In.
Given the heightened concern
about unrequested email, or "spam," and the potential damage it can
cause a reputable business using email, some organizations have decided to adopt
a permission marketing method called double opt-in. Double opt-in enables the
business to verify that the person requesting information via email did actually
initiate the request. It also conveys to the prospect or customer that you take
privacy very seriously by ensuring the emails you send them are indeed
requested. Although the jury is still out on whether double opt-in will
eventually become the standard, your email solution should at least provide you
with the option of doing this today.
Email Basics
Email Glossary of Terms
Email Etiquette
Email Permission: Ask First
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