Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if we treated people like we treat emails? What would happen if you could "unsubscribe" or "mark as spam" certain people and conversations in your life? This past weekend, I was watching a scene in a past episode of "Better Off Ted" in which Veronica (played by Portia De Rossi) exclaims, "Please unsubscribe me from this conversation!" to some co-workers discussing a topic nearby her. This got me thinking. Would we continue to market the same way we do now if people treated each other like we all treat email?
Often, when I speak to marketers about their spam complaint or unsubscribe rates, they believe that their customers must have made a mistake. I mean, how could their customers no longer want these communications from them? The logic is that they originally signed up for the messages, so they must want them -- right?
As we all know, email marketing (in fact, all marketing) is about relevancy. If your message is not relevant in some way to your end users, they will not pay attention to it. In the case of television ads, viewers will either change the channel, fast forward through it, or get up and get something to drink so that they don't spend their time listening to irrelevant messages. In email marketing, it is even easier to avoid messages that are not relevant. There are basically three options to deal with unwanted email: delete it, unsubscribe from future messages, or mark it as spam. The second option states your belief that future messages will also be irrelevant, and the third informs the sender, and more critically the ISP, of your feelings about the email. Imagine if you had these options for all conversations and situations that were not relevant to you.
Think about how many times you have listened to a conversation that you care nothing about -- maybe you got cornered at a party and couldn't get away. Or maybe you were on the phone with someone and couldn't get off because you felt obligated to listen. If we lived by email rules, these types of situations would no longer happen. We would simply disengage with the party that is no longer worth our time.
While society isn't likely to emulate email anytime soon, thinking about how you feel when you get stuck in an irrelevant conversation is a good wake-up call, reminding you to be committed to sending relevant messages. You don't want to be that guy at the party that everyone is trying to avoid. Instead, you want to be at the top of the invite list, thanks to your superb social skills -- which involves remembering the likes and dislikes of other party goers and engaging in conversations that they enjoy.
Remember that relevancy is still the key to email marketing, and to life. If we forget this simple fact, we will never be able to reach (and keep) our customers. We as marketers are sometimes blind to the true marketing experience we all strive for -- reaching our customers and "speaking" to them. When we are able to speak to our customers, it is because the message is compelling, relevant, and timely.
The next time you are looking at your unsubscribes or complaint rates, think about the message you sent to your users and what might have turned them off. Better yet, take the time to find out what your users like and the kind of conversation they expect from you. You can accomplish this by evaluating behavioral data from your email campaigns and website, or by straight-out asking them with a customer survey. The information you collect is invaluable for creating campaigns that are relevant, wanted, and expected.
Your customers do have "unsubscribe" and "this is spam" buttons, and they are not afraid to use them. By doing a little bit of effort up front, you can follow through with the email best practices that will help ensure that those buttons won't be used against you.
Good luck and good sending.
Spencer Kollas is director of delivery services for StrongMail Systems.
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