Getting Permission from Subscribers
One of the most important components of developing a winning email marketing strategy is making sure your obtain permission from your customers to send email marketing messages. While our partner Constant Contact enables you to obtain permission from your website visitors and enables you to maintain permission in your mailings, other sources of data that you may wish to import (i.e. customer databases) may not include explicit permission.
It is worthwhile to educate yourself and your clients about permission. The information below should get you started.
Explicit permission: when the subscriber “opts in” to receive email marketing communications from you. Typically associated with online registration such as through the Website Signup Tags and Visitor Signup Form, explicit permission can also be obtained through more traditional methods such as guest books or signup forms at tradeshows or events.
Implicit permission: when the subscriber has an existing relationship with you. The most common occurrence is a subscriber who is an existing customer.. While you may have communicated with these folks in the past, you may not have asked these folks for permission to send them marketing information via email. In order to convert Implicit permission databases to Explicit permission databases, the first communicationthat you send to these individuals should be a permission letter or you should add a permission statement at the top of your first few campaigns. Your permission reminder would say something like this, “You are receiving this email from XYZ because you purchased a product/service or subscribed on our website. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add contact@company.com to your address book today. If you haven't done so already, click to confirm your interest in receiving email campaigns from us.” To no longer receive our emails, click to unsubscribe.
No permission: mailing without permission is called Unsolicited Commercial Email (“UCE”) or “SPAM.” Sending email messages to individuals with whom you have no relationship should be avoided at all costs. The ramifications of sending UCE or SPAM are significant. Your client’s website could be taken down and future email messages blocked by major ISPs. Constant Contact also has a very strict permission policy and the sending of UCE or SPAM through their system is prohibited and will result in the termination your Constant Contact account.
List Rental: there are a number of organizations that rent email lists of subscribers who have opted-in to receive information on specific subjects, products or services. The quality of opt-in rental lists varies greatly. If you desire to send an email campaign to one of these lists, you should engage a credible list broker that deals exclusively with “opt- in” lists that are sent via the list owner or their agent. These lists typically cost between 15 and 45 cents per name. Don’t fall for offers of email lists for sale on a CD-ROM, third party lists that are not “opt-in,” or cheap lists. If it sounds to good to be true… it is.
Helpful Hint: Always remember… “Permission is NOT for sale!”
Always Email Responsibly:
Here are a couple of hints to make sure that you are always emailing responsibly for your clients:
a. Remind the recipients why they are receiving the email
b. Respect the privilege of communicating and take care not to email too often
c. Include unsubscribe or “opt-out” links in every message
d. Allow subscribers to change their email address and their preferences
e. Post your privacy policy (No need to recreate the wheel. Constant Contact provides one for you)
f. Monitor the reply inbox and promptly handle unsubscribe requests
g.
Monitor your unsubscribe rates