Recently, I started receiving email newsletters via Constant Contact from a company who I know, have had a one-on-one meeting with and have even thought about referring business to. I still got a little irritated when they put me on their email marketing list - irritated enough by this and others who have done the same, that I felt compelled to give a freindly reminder about this discourteous marketing practice.
I've blogged about this before, but I have to say it again. . . proper email etiquette is still lacking with many businesses. Instead of building relationships, you are actually deteriorating relationships when you start spamming. Just because you met someone networking and received their business card, does not mean you should add them to your email marketing list. Even if you have had substantial conversations with the individual, you should still ask permission to add them to your email marketing list. Be courteous - send a personal email and ask if it would be OK to add them to your list.
Quality permission based email is more important than quantity. You could enter 200 emails of people you met networking. Not only is it going to irritate most of them, it is going to cause your open rate to be very low.
Another practice to avoid is collecting emails on forms that do not alert the person submitting their email that they will receive email marketing. Last evening, my husband and I went to a charity silent auction. Upon arriving we were required to fill out a form to register our bidder numbers. The form asked for an email address and did not say anything else. At first I thought that they wanted it as an additional means to reach us should we win a bid and not check out that evening. However, I decided to ask the volunteer about it. She informed me they use that to send out email marketing, to which I replied, "I get too much of that already that I don't have time to read. Thank you anyway."
If you have a form that is requesting an email, be up front as to why you are asking for it. Have a small disclaimer under the line that says something like, "By providing your email, you are confirming you wish to receive email marketing newsletters."
For ideas on how to build up your permission based email marketing list, contact us.
