Contrarian views on subscriber management
Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on December 18, 2007
The recent EmailLabs report on unsubscribe practices has highlighted the issue of subscriber management.The general feeling is that the future consists of online "subscriber preference centers," where people can control the flow of email they get from you. Either by ticking the right boxes or providing information about themselves that helps you refine your content and approach.
But...
David Baker's latest article invites us to think a little harder before taking that route.
One of his core arguments is the idea that a preference center isn't worth the pixels it's printed on if subscribers aren't engaged enough with your business or program to want to use it and keep it updated.
This addresses a deeper issue. One of the realities of email marketing is that even when your program is a success, chances are people aren't that excited by it. If you stopped sending emails, many people would likely not notice, or shrug and move on.
(For those who take umbrage at that suggestion, ask yourself why industry average open and clickthrough rates are always so low.) Only a few email programs can count on intense subscriber loyalty.
The general lesson is never to let up on trying to provide value to the subscriber. Don't let yourself get obsessed entirely with what you are getting out of email marketing.
And as far as subscriber preference centers go, there is indeed a challenge to get people to use them. Which is why you can't rely on subscribers to hand you a profile on a plate.
You need to give them a reason to do so, or use other techniques to build your own understanding of subscribers, through such things as click tracking or selective opt-outs.
Ultimately, perhaps, it's a question of knowing your subscriber list, understanding what is they want from you (and giving it to them) and what you can expect from them (and asking for no more than that.) Sounds easy when you put it like that!
More on list management | Tags: email marketing, subscriber management, unsubscribes, subscriber preference centers
[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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