Permission As an Email Marketing Engagement Strategy
- Author:
- Stephanie Miller
- Source:
-
Is it better to get permission up front for your email marketing program, or just beg for forgiveness later?
The short answer is YES, of course it’s better to get permission. It’s always better to get permission. Permission is the first step toward setting expectations, creating relationships and keeping data clean. Permission is a subscriber engagement opportunity.
However, it’s only a first step. Permission does not give marketers a license to just send whatever, whenever. In fact, more than just a one time exercise, permission must be re-earned with every message. Lots of subscribers who gave permission unsubscribe or just ignore future messages. They also complain (click on the Report Spam button), which depresses inbox placement for all campaigns. You can’t earn a response if you aren’t in the inbox.
What really matters is not that permission was granted, but that it is earned. Adopting this attitude leads to decisions like:
- Sending only messages that have real value, at the time when they help subscribers most. For example, sending newsletters every month on the third Thursday might be a fine strategy to just “stay visible,” but sending promotions on days when subscribers are ready to take action on timely deals is a better one. Send more messages when a subscriber is “in market” (e.g.: just purchased, up for renewal, etc) and fewer when they are not.
- Re-engaging with non-active subscribers before ...
