|
What's an overlooked source of grief for email marketers? Shared email addresses, such as a single email address for a family.
Suppose you're a major retailer, popular teen Web site or regional shopping center. The Smith family's daughter signs up for your newsletter or special offers, using the all-purpose family address, "smithfamily@domain.com."
You send out your confirmation email like a good double-opt-in marketer should. Papa Smith sees the email first and assumes it's spam because, of course, HE didn't sign up for it. So, he sends a little nasty-gram back to you in which he demands that you remove his address from your list. If he's really seething, he reports you as a spammer to his ISP. Not good!
A three-step process can help you reduce this problem:
1. Set up your subscription database to capture as much information as possible about the sign-up, such as the subscriber's name, plus where, when and how he/she signed up.
2. Then, report all that information immediately in a confirmation email, using your email software's mail-merge or personalization features. Include any other info that sheds light on the subscription process and jogs the memory, such as what kind of information was requested, how often you email, even a sample or current newsletter or offer.
3. Finally, add this personalized information to an administration section in each mailing to remind subscribers how you got their addresses and what they can do to opt out of your list. (See Email Admin Center: The New Standard in Email Messages in our free Resource Center for more information.)
This is another reason why we advised in last month's Intevation Report to contact your new subscribers as soon as possible (See Make Your Email Stand Out in the Crowd). Their email memories are short; do everything you can to stay fresh in their minds.
|
