Just because someone is a customer does not mean they want your email marketing. While it may sound obvious to some, when it comes to opting customers in to email marketing lists there’s a common misconception among online marketers that a transaction equals acceptance of all future email marketing.
Spam is whatever the recipient perceives it to be. And that includes the email you send when a customer purchases from you.
As long as I have worked at the abuse desk, I have seen this type of email practice (read: abuse) happen far too many times. The basic scenario is similar across the board. Someone purchases their fancy new email-sending platform and the first thing they do is import their entire list of customers. After the import, they create an email template and then blast it to the entire list.
A few hours later, they hear from the Email Service Provider’s Abuse Department with accusations of spamming. While the list wasn’t purchased, rented, borrowed or stolen, it’s still considered spam because the individuals never gave explicit permission to receive email marketing. In addition, how long has it been since they provided permission? Best practice is six months or older shouldn’t be marketed to—instead, those people need to re-opt-in to marketing. (I’ll save that topic for later.)
There are two common points of failure for obtaining permission to send a customer email marketing upon purchasing online products.
- The first is the obvious one. The customer proceeds through the checkout and one field they fill out is the email address field. Nowhere does the page state the customer will receive email marketing. From the customer’s perspective, they should only receive a receipt for their online purchase to their inbox and nothing else. When the merchant emails them specials via email, they violate their trust.
- The second common scenario plays out when customers purchase an item and within the vicinity of the email field there may be a statement with something to the effect of “you will receive notifications from us” or my favorite, “by proceeding to purchase you agree to our terms of service”. Within the terms of service on page 86, section b, paragraph 14, third sentence is where it says they will receive email marketing. While this is a marginally ‘better’ practice, the person has no option but to enter in their email address or abandon the purchase altogether, which you certainly don’t want. The next day they wake up to six emails in their inbox, which they never asked for. This is, of course, somewhat exaggerated but you get the idea.
Always respect your recipient’s inbox. What it comes down to is setting proper expectations and providing options for your customers and recipients. How frustrating is it for a new customer to purchase a product from your company, only to have their inbox bombarded with automated email marketing they never asked for? This has potential to create a negative relationship with the customer, preventing them from wanting to do business with you again in the future.
Think of the last time you purchased a product from any major online retailer. You add your items to the cart, proceed to checkout, enter billing/shipping/contact info, then right above the giant ‘Checkout’ button there is a check-box which states “Sign me up for email promotions and offers”. That’s the way to forge lasting relationships with customers—give them choices. If you don’t want specials, no problem, just say so.
Giving your customers the choice to receive future email marketing is the current best practice and will strengthen your relationship for potential future purchases. People love choice.
[Image credit: husin.sani]
Posted In: Email Marketing
