Email death by association

The term "email reputation" has grown to mean many things. But no sensible marketer denies the fact that the emails you send have an impact on how recipients think about your wider business and brand.

This is both opportunity and problem.

On the opportunity side, it's the reason why we work hard to ensure our email marketing programs do everything right.

By respecting permission, controlling send frequencies, sending relevant content, using an appropriate design, style and tone etc., we can make that impact a positive one.

Then there are the problems.

Unfortunately, those carefully constructed marketing emails are not the only emails that recipients are using to build an impression of your business.

That business is also associated with other emails which might be killing the reputation you strive so hard to build through your in-house marketing program.

The obvious candidates are the emails coming from your colleagues: customer service email, transactional email, email from other business units etc.

These have a marketing impact, too, wreaking havoc with frequencies, messaging etc. Which is why you read so much about centralizing email control.

But it doesn't stop there.

Third-party emails may be marketing on your behalf. And their email marketing practices reflect on your business and brand.

Do the following keep to the same standards you'd use for your own marketing emails?

• Rental lists (is that rental list truly opt in?)
• Sponsorships (newsletters featuring your ads)
• Partner emails (maybe you arranged an ad swap with a business selling related -- but not competing -- services and products?)
• Affiliate emails (how do your affiliates promote you via email?)

If you use any of the above, they are each helping build (or destroy) your "email reputation."

Here two examples to illustrate the point:

1. Bryan Eisenberg describes how one leading company became an unwitting and unintentional "spammer" through using rental lists. He also reports on the actions they're taking to prevent a repeat.

2. Many companies targeting marketers promote webinars and white papers by renting subscriber lists from different B2B marketing websites and publications.

Trouble is, info-hungry marketing people like me are on all these lists. The result of one particularly careless rental campaign? Five emails from five websites (fine) advertising the same webinar from the same company in the space of two days (not so fine).

Time perhaps to cast an evaluative eye on who else is driving your email reputation?

Tags: email marketing, email reputation, branding, email list rental

Sign-up for the Email Marketing Reports NEWSLETTER
Twice a month, free, packed with email marketing advice and all the posts from this blog.

Email:      First Name:     
    More info and sample | Your privacy is guaranteed

Email marketing search engine
Introduction to email marketing and email advertising basics
Listings for email marketing services
Sources of email marketing statistics
Advice on email design and delivery issues

Top 21 email marketing info sources
Outlook 2007 and HTML design
Events and webinar roundup

Visit the main website for everything email marketing.