Sep
25
Putting the Permission Back into Marketing
Editor’s note: This is a post from Melinda Brennan of WAHM Biz Builder.
I hate spam. I receive something like 250+ emails every day, most of which is spam. Fortunately my spam filter kills most of it before it gets to me. And then there’s the emails that aren’t actually spam, but should be. Because they’re marketing without permission.
Permission Marketing is when a person says “Hey, I want you to email me and tell me about all the cool stuff you sell”. Do you see the connection here? This person gave permission for you to market to them.
If they don’t outright give permission, if the person hasn’t actively said “Yes” then you don’t have permission and your emails can be considered spam. Spamming is a really good way to get your itty biz blacklisted and have all your emails, both good and bad, sent automatically to a spam blocker or deleted forever. Clearly this is very bad for your marketing and sales.
Here’s how NOT to do permission marketing, a real-life example:
In mid 2007 I attended an Expo as a stall holder and had business cards sitting on the table for people to pick up. In early February this year (2009) I received this email (names and business changed to protect the guilty, email paraphrased for brevity):
Hi Melinda,
My name is ________ and we met at the Expo last year. My husband and I are expanding our business and wondered if you would be interested in joining us.
Our business is xyz and we sell “blah blah products” within Australia and internationally.
If you would be interested in joining us, please email me and we’ll set up a time to connect.
Now, I have no problem with this email. She’s told me who she is and where we met, where she got my business card from.
Unfortunately she got a few facts wrong as well – such as the fact that the website listed on the business card no longer existed and hadn’t for close on a year when she emailed me. She obviously hadn’t checked her facts to see how current the contact details were.
Did you read her comment “If you would be interested in joining us, please email me and we’ll set up a time to connect” I didn’t email her, ever. I’m not interested in joining her business or selling/using the products. However, she appears not to let a small thing like lack of response or permission stop her!
In the two weeks after the original email I received at least four more emails inviting me to the business launch and to join. It’s now seven months later, and I’m still seeing the occasional email from her – only now it’s sitting in the spam section of my filter to be deleted. Yes, I marked it as spam and blacklisted her.
I’ve had someone try to tell me that, under Australian law at least, permission can be implied rather than specific. That if I hand you my business card then I have implied that you can add me to your list and market to me. Sorry, no.
This same person tried to tell me that if I have my email listed on my website, publicly available, then I’m also implying permission to be added to a list and marketed to. Again, no.
Permission has to be intentionally and specifically given. Not implied. Not assumed. It has to be clearly stated.
And the moral of the story is this: If a person hasn’t specifically stated that they would like to hear more about your products and services – you don’t have permission to market to them.
If you have asked the person if they want to be marketed to and they either said no or didn’t reply – you don’t have permission to market to them.
Just because you have a person’s business card in your hot little hand, even if they handed it to you personally at a networking event – you don’t have permission to market to them.
And when it really comes down to it, would you prefer a smaller email list that has interested, eager people on it, who have stated that they’re interested in buying your products and services, or would you prefer a huge list of people who have no interest in you whatsoever?
I know which one I want.
Melinda Brennan is a Business Coach who helps Work at Home Mums find clarity and direction amongst the enjoyable chaos of working at home. You can find her online at WAHM Biz Builder or come and say hello to her on Twitter.
It’s one thing to follow-up with something personal (and relevant) shortly after you meet someone. For instance, sending an article about a local car show to someone who expressed an interest in classic cars, or forwarding the name of a Web designer to someone who asked for a referral. It’s quite another to repeatedly blast out emails that are all about you, or to keep contacting someone who clearly isn’t interested in your services.
In the US, scraping email addresses from web sites is considered spam. Best practices call for double opt-in (ask to be added, and then verify your request), and anti-spam laws require an opt-out link in every marketing email. Names must be removed within 10 business days. Violators are subject to large fines. It doesn’t stop everyone, but it does help.
Hear, hear! Dually agreed and a practice I adhere to myself!
@ Jodi, absolutely! I love it when I’ve met someone and they send me an email that relates to what we talked about, or at least something they think I’d be interested in. Putting me on a list and continually sending sales emails to me? No way, bugger off.
It’s just difficult to track down spammers in order to fine them or close them down.
@ Heather. Good on you! :-)
Wow, adding someone to a list that DOESN’T have a double-opt in? That’s just plain ridiculous.
I would never even consider that!! I didn’t even realize there are some folks out there clueless enough to do that; you always want to keep your email marketing on the positive site and ideally, write so well your readers look forward to getting your messages.
You learn something new every day.
There should be an email marketing handbook given to every email account that states just what you said, “Permission has to be intentionally and specifically given. Not implied. Not assumed. It has to be clearly stated.” Email marketing crosses country lines, but courtesy is the same wherever you live.
I create and sometimes manage email marketing campaigns for clients. They ALWAYS have an opt-in sheet and a way to opt out.
This person you describe not only doesn’t get it, she is damaging her business reputation as well.
… do I have permission to comment?
;) Sorry, just my silly POME humour.
I enjoyed your post, Melinda and I think it really shows you’re a seasoned hand at something which I’ve only started to learn this year, if I’m brutally honest, namely the permission marketing approach and how to leverage it by (staring and trying hard to) building the right social media presence.
Spam is a total off-pisser, but as an reformed spammer who didn’t know any better (my fault for being uninformed, of course) I can see why so many ittybiz owners (mine’s more ittybittybiz!) fall into the spam trap. Indeed, reading your post even had a few of my cringes cringing at some of my desperate Eeew-mail attempts as a one-man company sweating on the monthly payments; although I was never as stubborn or thick-headed as the foil in your story (honest!).
Why do I think the Ittybizer gets snapped up in the spam trap?
1. Being misinformed (your fault – the blue ‘e’ on your desktop and a bit of time will sort that out):
2. Fear (I get that!)
3. Desperation (sadly, we ALL get that)
This all leads to a massive thought-error. You know that you can impress if someone …anyone gives you a chance. At that point its not hard to end up wasting, TRULY WASTING hours and hours and HOURS trawling the Net for potential prospects’ contact details before embaking on an ignorant programme of self-harm resulting in an army of spam and masochistic cold-calling. That’s what the free, dusty old sales books from the library (another waste of time) and the era of Interruption Marketing swore would work!
But a Purple Cow and change of horse later (apologies, that’s a truly crippling metaphor) and I’ve learnt the valuable lesson which you’re sharing: quality not quantity.
Indeed, it’s truly Babautabian the amount of time you’ll save cutting out the spam driven detective work!
Thanks for your post!
Very interesting article as I try and build my e-mail/newsletter list. I checked the number of subscribers and while it’s very small still, I’m not about to add people that I don’t have permission from. I am allowing that list to grow organically.
I would imagine that an e-mail should have been sent as a follow-up from the expo. A simple nice-to-meet-you kind of e-mail. This e-mail could have had a simple link to the opt in form as a way to stay connected. Atleast you know that they can follow that link and give you their permission at that point in time. Since you must met, and did a follow up, I would assume someone might be more inclined to give permission at that point of time than 2 years later.
@ Barbara, Yes, there are people like that – they’re called spammers. Along with those who buy lists of email addresses…. I’m surprised at the amount of email lists that don’t have double opt-in.
@ Julie, an email marketing handbook…. that could be a good idea…
@ Andy, Permission to comment granted. ;-) Mistakes are good. Mistakes are the best way to learn. It’s not a competition to see who can build the biggest list quickly. As Naomi has said previously (no, I can’t remember which post) you want YOUR RIGHT PEOPLE on the list. Not any email address that you can find, you want people who are truly interested in what you’re offering to be on your list.
You’re scaring me here…. ;-) I think I’ll just leave that one alone, except to say that people find you, you don’t find them. Your ‘stuff’ goes out into the internet – that’s your Marketing – and then people come to you. The detective work should be focussed on where your target market is and how best to reach them, not how to grab their email address.
@ Scott, yes, an email straight after the Expo would have been a much better way to make a connection. There are ways to build your list ethically, have a look at Dave Navarro’s “More Buyers Every Month” program when it opens again http://www.morebuyerseverymonth.com/
Thanks for the reminder that this basic rule isn’t that “basic” for everyone. Coming from an advertising background, I know only too well – having had them burned into my memory by lawsuit-fearing program managers – the do’s and don’t's of permission marketing. The rules and regs of the CAN-SPAM act became something of a mantra for a while there.
Still, it amazes me how many “professional” marketers overlook the permission part of PERMISSION marketing. I recently had a casual acquaintance add me to his newsletter mailing list without so much as a mention that he’d be publishing one. I’ve also had other marketers in the biz add me to their mailing list because my email is listed on a Web site and they just “KNEW” I’d want to get their stuff. Seriously?
I can totally relate to your pain and am glad that you shared this post with us. Hopefully, it will coach a few more ittybiz owners to a place where they have better email marketing manners. ;)
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