The ISPs speak: don't say nobody warned you

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on July 18, 2007

I was intrigued by a couple of quotes from the folk in charge of keeping inboxes free of unwanted email.

Note I didn't say free of spam. Because if you listen to what Yahoo, AOL and others say, it's clear that they see their job as keeping out exactly that...unwanted email (classic spam is just one example.)

Treat that as a warning. If your email is to get delivered, then it must do more than just satisfy the traditional criteria for a legitimate marketing email (an opt-in, legal compliance etc.)

Instead, you have to work hard to ensure the recipients keep wanting to get your email.

Which sounds obvious.

Until you take a step back and ask yourself how many of your email marketing decisions are determined by your needs, rather than those of the recipients. (The ideal scenario, of course, is to find the right email content, offers and strategy that satisfy both.)

Here are those quotes:

It is really about what the consumer wants. Even if they asked to receive the e-mail, if they do not find value in it, then it is not a good e-mail. We want to make sure that our customers are happy. Charles Stiles, AOL

Operationally we define spam as whatever consumers don't want in their inbox. Miles Libbey, Yahoo!

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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