Avoid emailer's remorse

There's something reassuring about watching your email list grow. Every new email address is a cause for celebration. Growth is good.

Most of the time. (But not all of the time.)

Because it's not just subscribers who might feel remorse after handing over their email address. Not every new email address is a welcome one for the list owner, either.

Spam traps are an obvious example, a topic already covered here.

As are addresses from people who never asked to be added to your list: they'll (rightly) shout spammer when they get your message.

But even a list built on an "opt-in" basis can end up with email addresses that cause real or opportunity costs to your business.

Let's talk about permission slaves, focus spreaders, bargain hunters and trigger chasers...

Permission slaves

Permission slaves are what you get when you lack emotional permission. You got some kind of opt-in, a sort of an opt-in...to something...and now it's yours to use and abuse. (And then lose.)

This is where you twist the meaning of "getting permission" to fit your list growth needs, with the result that people end up on your list who don't really want to be there. And that puts them on the slippery slope that ends in clicking the "report spam" button.

Permission slaves appear, for example, when you:

• ...take subscribers from one list and add them to another list you've decided is equally relevant to their interests. This kind of assumed permission suggests you're omnipotent in knowing what subscribers want. You aren't. It's not an opt-in.
• ...pre-check opt-in boxes or otherwise sign someone up because they didn't actively opt-out when given the opportunity. Not opting out is not the same as opting-in.
• ...buy an email list.
• ...assume getting business cards or an attendee list at a trade show means you got new subscribers. It doesn't.
• Hide the opt-in in the small print.

Don't do it. (The practices mentioned for avoiding subscriber's remorse will in turn help prevent permission slaves, too.)

Focus spreaders

We talk about relevancy a lot in email marketing. Delivering relevant messages to your email subscribers. But what about reverse relevancy: is the new subscriber relevant to you?

An unhealthy obsession with list size rather than list quality means some email programs are pitched to a wider audience than your well-defined target audience.

This leads to problems.

First, if you then produce content for your target audience only, everyone else can get turned off...spam reports are the logical consequence.

Second, if you then produce content for the wider audience, your target audience might get bored and move on. And you start to focus your email efforts and resources on the wrong people.

The best email programs have a perfect match between the subscriber list, the contents of the program and the needs of the sending organization. If you attract subscribers that do not match either the program's contents or your organization's needs, then the resulting imbalance hurts your bottom line.

Bargain hunters

In discussing audience development, Kevin Hillstrom cites the example of one email marketer who:

"...developed an audience that only responds to free shipping. He cannot get away from free shipping unless he develops a new audience."

Here we're getting into pricing strategies (not my field) but when the pressure's on, it's seductively easy to use email to send out a constant stream of discount offers, coupons and deals. Rather than more considered branding and promotional campaigns.

If that's a deliberate strategy, fine, but beware of cultivating an audience of bargain hunters unless you're sure that works best for your business.

Trigger chasers

Trigger emails in response to website behaviors (abandoned shopping carts, "browsed but didn't buy" etc.) hold much promise but...

This is the Internet. If you always send an emailed coupon the day after a checkout process is left uncompleted, people will place items in their cart and then wait 24 hours. And word will get round. If you use incentives to get people to complete a purchase process, test carefully to see their value.

Consider reminder emails that feature no coupon or deal. Retailers have reported success with cart abandonment emails that simply remind people they haven't bought a product yet.

Just as deals and coupons via email educate people to wait for deals and coupons before buying, so simplistic, incentive-based and regular rewards for website behaviors will encourage exactly those kinds of behaviors.

Any other unwelcome guests on an email list (and how do you avoid them)?

Tags: email marketing, list building, list growth, spam traps, permission marketing

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