Chapter Twenty-Four

Permission is the Key

By Ben Hart

But here is the #1 key to successful marketing with email. And that’s to make sure you have the permission of people to send them emails.

It’s very important for your opt-in form to say very clearly to your visitors that, by signing up, they will not only be receiving the free ebook, “white paper”  or other free gift “ethical bribe” you are offering; but that they will be also receiving your e-newsletter or ezine.

And then, in a follow-up e-mail, you should ask your opt-in subscriber to confirm their subscription.  All reputable email marketing services have the “double opt-in” or “subscription confirmation” feature built in as an automated function.

Some services make “double opt-in” mandatory.  Some make it optional.   You should use it.

Why?

Too many reasons to count.  But here are some of the big reasons. 

Reasons to Require People to “Confirm”

Their Subscription, Even Though It’s Free

Big Reason #1:

When someone fills out your form to get your free gift, they are often moving fast and don’t realize they are opting-in to receive ongoing email communications from you.  You want to make sure they realize what they are opting-in for . . . so that they don’t report you to AOL or Yahoo or their ISP provider as a spammer (even though you are not a spammer).

Some will hit the yellow “spam” button on AOL anyway (which AOL prominently features) no matter how careful you are.  There’s no much you can do about that.

The anti-commerce ethos on the Internet is becoming so dominant, that some people are making it a hobby to report all commercial email as spam to the ISP.  You don’t want to become an innocent victim of the anti-spam vigilantes.

So you certainly do not want to trick people into opting in.  You want your initial communications with your opt-in subscribers to be very clear and forthright.

And you want to require “double opt-in” or a “confirmation” of their subscription.

Will you lose subscribers by doing this?

Yes, you will.  You will lose about 30% of your subscribers, who will not confirm their subscription.  But that’s okay.  You probably don’t want those people anyway.

These are not people who are likely to buy from you.  You will lose a few sales by requiring a subscription confirmation; but not many.   And you will save yourself a lot of headaches and accusations of being a spammer – an accusation you want to avoid at all costs.

Requiring your opt-in susbscriber to confirm their subscription significantly increases the quality and value of your subscriber.  Your leads will be far better.  A list that is built with a “double opt-in” or “subscription confirmation” requirement is far more valuable than a list built with just a single opt-in.

Big Reason #2:

And this is pretty big.

If you are ever accused of spam by AOL, Yahoo and the ISPs of being a spammer, you will be able to prove you are not with a double-opt-in requirement.

That’s because, with “double opt-in,” you receive the IP address from where the susbscription originated and a time stamp for when the opt-in subscription was entered.

This is considered de facto proof that you are not spamming.  And the ISPs accept this as proof.

In fact, being able to demonstrate your “double opt-in” requirement will earn you a spot on the “white list” of most ISPs – which means your emails will sail through the filters without even getting checked.

More on “white lists” in a moment.

Big Reason #3:

This is just a basic “sound marketing practices” reason.

A big part of what you are trying to do with your email and Internet marketing program is to build rapport and trust with your prospects . . . so that they will be inclined to buy from you.

The #1 hurdle you need to overcome as an Internet marketer is suspicion and distrust.  Everyone on the Internet worries about getting scammed.

You do not overcome suspicion, skepticism and distrust by tricking people into filling out your sign-up form to start getting your emails.

From the outset, you need to be building rapport and trust – so that your prospects will start to lower their guard and start paying attention to you.

Your first challenge as an Internet marketer is to get your prospects to start reading your emails.  And then you want to get to a point where your prospects actually look forward to getting your emails.  People much prefer to buy from those they know and trust.

Your first goal as an Internet marketer is to earn the trust of your opt-in prospects.

Big Reason #4

I believe a big part of what should make Internet marketing different from other kinds of marketing is that it should not be what marketing guru Seth Godin calls “Interruption Marketing.”

On the Internet, people find you because they are looking for something like what you are selling.  Or they are interested in the topic you are addressing.

They do this by typing keywords and keyword phrases into search engines.

They use the Internet to look things up and conduct research.  More and more, people today use the Internet like a giant encyclopedia.  Mostly, what people look for on the Internet is information.

They use the Internet to do their research.  And then they buy.

So Internet surfers find you because they are looking for you.  Or they are looking for something like what you are selling or saying.   They find you on their own.

You are not interrupting what they are doing.  And if your site is good and if it’s on the topic they are looking for, they are thrilled to find you.

Now, this is very different from most advertising, which is “Interruption Advertising.”

When an ad comes on TV, it’s interrupting what you really want to be doing, which is watching your show.  When a telemarketer interrupts you at dinner, that’s just about the most annoying kind of interruption advertising there is. 

When junk mail arrives in your mailbox, that’s Interruption Marketing . . . because when you are sorting through your mail, what you want to find are personal letters from friends and relatives, or maybe a package containing a product you ordered.

90 percent of junk mail – the “Interruption Marketing” mail – is instantly pitched in the trash.

Big display ads in newspapers and magazines are also Interruption Advertising . . . because they are interrupting what you really want to be doing – which is reading the article -- which often jumps to another page where you are interrupted by more ads.

People don’t like Interruption Advertising.

The old-fashioned Yellow Pages and classified ads are different.

This is not Interruption Advertising.  You go to the Yellow Pages or classified ads when you are looking for something specific.  The Yellow Pages and classified ads are a primitive version of Permission Marketing.  You go to the Yellow Pages and classified ads precisely to read the ads.

The Internet is like that, or mostly like that.

But email, pop-up ads and banner ads are more like the old Interruption Adverting – the kind of advertising people hate.  And they hate it even more on the Internet.

Interruption marketing is especially pernicious with email because email is essentially free to the marketer.

Yes, it does cost something.  You need to pay a monthly fee and other relatively modest fees to your hosted Internet Marketing Service.

But it’s essentially free compared to postal junk mail.

It might cost you  a 2/10ths of a penny or less to send an email.  But a postal letter will cost 50 cents each to send at minimum, and often more.

So there is a built-in limit to the number of postal junk mail letters you will likely receive – a limit imposed by cost.  Not everyone can afford to get into the postal direct mail marketing business because of cost.

But everyone can afford to send email messages.  So there is no limit to the number of marketing messages you might receive in your email in-box.

That’s why I am actually a fan of the efforts to stamp out spam – real spam.

I just think AOL and Yahoo go overboard on it.  But I’m all for stamping out true spam – as long as legitimate marketers and their customers are not hurt along the way.

Requiring permission is also a great thing, both for the public and for the marketer.  Really, you only want to be communicating with people who want to hear from you anyway.

That’s the entire theory behind lead generation marketing.

So you never want to become an Interruption Marketer with your emails.

Not only do you risk being tagged as a spammer.  But people will stop opening your emails.

Most people who get sick of you never actually click the “unsubscribe” link that you need to include with every e-mail you send out.

They will just hit the delete key of every email of yours that comes in.

Hitting that delete key when they see your email come in will become a reflex action if you are not careful – if you start abusing your prospects and customers.

You want to be a “welcome guest not an annoying pest” in the email in-boxes of your opt-in subscribers.

Now here’s something else you absolutely must do to avoid being tagged as a spammer.

You absolutely must instantly remove anyone from your list who asks to be removed.  Don’t send back any wise-crack comment.  Just remove them from your list.

I do not even respond with an email telling them they have been removed.

Why?

Because they have asked not to hear from me.  So I honor the request – strictly.  They will never hear from me again.  And they are barred forever from getting back on my email list – at least with that email address.

Once someone is removed from my list, they are removed forever and permanently.

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