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| How They Got Permission Religion |
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If you haven't yet received an ESN in your inbox, you're sure to get one anytime soon. ESNs, for those of you who enjoy collecting acronyms, are e-mail-based sales newsletters. They'll be commonplace by 2004, according to Ferris Research, replacing much postal-based mail.
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The popularity of e-mail as a marketing medium continues to rise, with marketing zealots spreading the gospel about the power of e-mail. Some analysts predict that e-mail marketing will reach saturation levels soon, flooding each consumer's inbox with thousands of messages a year, according to a recent report in DM News. And with saturation will come falling response rates.
Even permission-based e-mail marketing, whereby consumers receive messages only on topics they have requested, will not be immune to the effects of the crowded inbox. "Many marketers, impressed with the medium's potential, are sending messages tangentially related to consumers' specified interests, risking the trust of customers who can quickly opt-out of any e-mail relationship with marketers," states DM News, pointing out that an offer's relevance to its intended audience is critical in driving the response rate.
By 2002, we'll spend more than four hours each day reading and answering an average of 50 work-related messages, according to a Ferris Research report. Spam will occupy 40% of your mailbox in the future.
Getting consumers' permission is the antithesis of traditional "interruption marketing" which uses a variety of techniques to compete for consumers' attention. As marketers jostle to get heard above the hue and cry of an increasingly crowded marketplace, obtaining permission will be a crucial first step in getting consumers attention, let alone winning mindshare.
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| The Spam Antidot: Opt-In |
Permission marketing reaches out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product or service, they have "opted-in." While there isn't yet a verified opt-in protocol, "double opt-in" is one reliable way for firms to protect themselves against accusations of spamming. If there's one marketing commandment which paves the way to successful e-mail marketing, it's this: Thou shalt not spam.
Double opt-in is the process whereby an Internet user comes to a Web site and checks a box next to a topic of interest, enters his e-mail address and then receives and replies to an e-mail message confirming his subscription to the list, according to NetCreations' CEO, Rosalind Resnick.
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| Right on Target |
By talking only to volunteers, permission marketing guarantees that consumers pay more attention to the marketing message, says permission marketing guru Seth Godin. "Using permission e-mail, marketers can apply direct marketing principles to target prospects with relevant offers more precisely than ever before. Marketers must prove the value of e-mail by providing compelling offers unavailable offline, and they must adhere to strict interpretations of permission by providing information about products and services that truly match consumer interests," notes DM News.
But perhaps the last word comes from Godin: "Permission Marketing cuts through the clutter and allows a marketer to speak to prospects as friends, not strangers. This personalized, anticipated, frequent, and relevant communication has infinitely more impact than a random message displayed at a random moment at a random time." Amen to that.
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