Against scaredy-cat and lazy email marketing

1. Opt-in campaigns are the death knell for the email contact base

When examined more precisely from a formal legal point of view, most e-mail address bases that companies have built up over many years prove to be legally contestable: Sometimes there is no evidence of opt-in, such as the subscriber's IP address and time stamp of the opt-in, sometimes “implicit” declarations of consent were used — e.g. the handing over of the business card was considered as consent; in many cases there is a lack of clean design of the consent forms. In short, most email contacts collected over many years do not really have legal permission to deliver emails to them.

That is why agencies and in-house lawyers repeatedly recommend that the legal deficiencies of previous declarations of consent be “cured” retrospectively by means of an opt-in campaign. The dubious e-mail contacts are politely asked whether they would like to continue receiving advertising in the future. These campaigns are themselves illegal, because there is no permission to send the very emails that want to obtain permission. From a business perspective, however, the more decisive point is: opt-in campaigns destroy the database.

This is because most previous recipients simply do not respond to the question “Would you like to continue receiving our advertising” — although many of you have certainly appreciated the previous e-mail advertising and would never have thought of unsubscribing yourself. This is a psychological effect that can be observed time and again. Many companies have taken exactly this path on the advice of their marketing service providers and in-house lawyers, with the result that the recipient group melted away like snowmen in the sunshine. Because in the end, only those 5% of recipients who have given their “yes” may continue to be emailed.

This jeopardizes the entire email marketing project, because if the database no longer covers a relevant part of the target group, email is virtually worthless as a communication channel. That's why you shouldn't let overzealous in-house lawyers or preemptively obedient agencies break down your email marketing. Today, it takes the courage to act with the right sense of proportion in uncertain legal situations: namely to convince affine recipients with relevant content at the right time.

2. Obtaining e-mail contacts via “Permission” rental lists does not work

If setting up and maintaining an email address database is a tedious task, renting permission-based recipient lists for blind delivery seems a convenient, fast-acting alternative. When sending blindly, the tenant does not see the list, but has his advertising email sent by the landlord to his rental list.

Although such lists may produce a certain flash in the pan for direct sales, they are not suitable for gaining contact: Hardly any recipient on such a list is interested in what the company wants to tell them. Reputable address retailers also obtain the data through surveys, countertransactions or raffles — in most cases, the incentive for contact is therefore not to receive information about relevant products, but the prospect of a prize or a gift. In short: These people want the USB stick, not the regular newsletter from the list tenant.

In contrast to the print area, such lists are usually not sufficiently selectable. Personalization consists of much more than just age, gender and zip code, which are also hard to verify online.

The result: You have to build up your own lists. This is the only sustainable — albeit much more exhausting — way to attract prospects and build up customers.

3. Almost all potential leads ignore email marketing

How do you get new, clean and, above all, relevant email contact addresses? One thing is clear: It is not enough to wait for users. The vast majority of customers in the B2C sector will make no effort to be regularly informed by a company, even if they are interested in the services. For this reason, attracting contacts must not only be a marketing goal, but a strategic corporate goal — with the corresponding consequences.

Unfortunately, in many cases, maintaining lists is the sole task of the marketing department or its agency. Marketers act autonomously out of their own or forced convenience, so that there is no need to interfere with core business processes. Everyone reigns in marketing, but marketing should not disrupt operational business.

This way of thinking almost negligently allocates the enormous sales potential that “good” email marketing entails — but that is not available for nothing. Strategically generating e-mail contacts means collecting online and offline addresses and information throughout the company: during the ordering process, in service, during inquiries and purchases, at trade fairs, etc. The company website must not be a “business card on the Internet”, but must be converted into a contact identification machine.

All of this requires effort in the form of time and money, but this is the only way to generate really interesting leads and provide them with appropriate content individually. And this is the only way email marketing can take full advantage of its benefits.

4. Most commercial emails are irrelevant

Email marketing can send every user exactly the information that is really interesting and important to them. In this regard, it is clearly superior to mass media. That's the theory, because that's how almost no one uses email marketing. In reality, personalization usually stops with speaking.

Since costs barely increase with the number of recipients, many companies are reluctant to deliberately refrain from sending expensive content to part of the contact base — but selection is an indispensable prerequisite for relevant content. That means nothing more than providing every recipient with the right content at the right time.

Producing relevance requires work in several dimensions:

• fine target group segmentation in mass communication;
• a detailed analysis of each recipient's individual information needs based on all available communication and transaction data;
• the right tonality and depth of information for every recipient.

It's all a lot of work, because relevance produces complexity. Many service providers and marketers are unable or unwilling to accept this and implement it in operational processes. Only this path — the individualization of mass communication — promises long-term success in the form of satisfied, high-turnover customers.