Marketing

Permission-based email refers to email messages sent to subscribers who requested it, in contrast to unsolicited email messages or spam. Permission based emailing is also commonly known as “opt-in” emailing. One can either have a pre-existing customer relationship or obtain permission directly from the receiver. The key point to remember is when choosing an email provider to send out your email campaign, it is important to ask what their definition of what constitutes permission based terms. Having your company labeled a spammer from a reputable Email provider may cause your domain to be blacklisted or even blocked by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other Email Providers. The worst thing that can happen to your business is having your normal email correspondence fall into a recipients “spam folder.”

Permission based email has become popular for two simple reasons over the past decade. It’s illegal to send spam in most jurisdictions. And secondly, sending unsolicited emails “or spam” rarely works for reputable businesses as the average consumer has effectively tuned out most unknown vendors as they have been inundated with various offers over the years. This has resulted in most businesses receiving very little return for spam unless they are pitching “viagra,” or “porn,” or other non main stream products.

When used properly we have a permission based email campaign can ad to your bottom line in many ways. Permission based emailing executed properly is effective in increasing your sales conversion ratio, build strong relationships with customers, and allow one to increase revenue by introducing new products or services cheaply through cross sales.

5 Easy Steps in Beginning your first Permission Email Campaign

Step1 : Choose an Email Service Provider. Many email software providers offer free services such as creating newsletters, managing customers and subscribers through an in house Customer Relationships Manager (CRM), and Analytics which allows you track your campaign data (i.e. bounces, bad emails, email view reporting, etc).

Step 2: Email Frequency. You must decide on what type of emails you want to send and how often you want to send them. We suggest starting out with a regular monthly newsletter to your current customers. Please refer to our earlier blog entry “13 tips for email success” for more ideas. We suggest emailing no more than once per week to keep your email list turnover rate low.

Step 3: Build Your Email List. This is the most difficult step for most new businesses but a safe way to start is gather the emails of people you have done business with in the past and/or requested communication. Also, if you have emails of friends and family, you can make them permission based by sending out an opt-in email. This initial opt-in email simply asks the receiver if they want to join your email list. You should add a sign-up form on your website to collect emails from traffic and collect emails offline with methods such as asking for emails at the point of sale.

Step 4: Choose your Theme and Develop Content. It’s important to choose a good them or create one of your own. Develop timely and relevant content. We suggest segmenting your list into different demographic and customer groups to enhance closing rates.

Step 5: Quantify and Test. Many factors affect the success of your campaign. The most successful companies we have found failed, sometimes miserably, on their initial campaigns. The key to success was they kept records of everything they did and quantify. Attached to this blog is a simple excel spreadsheet so you can track the success of your campaign.