Author: David James

Is Your Email List Special?

Depending on how the email addresses for your list were collected, your company may be at risk of being assigned the status of spammer by popular email filtering software.  When this happens, the response you can get from a marketing campaign will be greatly diminished.  To make matters worse, it is nearly impossible to reverse such an action once it has taken place.  Because of this, companies must take special measures to ensure that the recipients of their email lists are only those who’ve explicitly requested such communication in the past.

Many older companies have gone years collecting email addresses through web forms and other sources without actually verifying that the recipient wishes to receive emails.  This is often the case when only a single opt-in is used.  Companies like to do this type of opt-in because it helps to increase the number of subscribers more quickly than with the much safer double opt-in.  The problem, however, is that you don’t actually have proof that someone has signed up for the newsletter since anyone can enter a friend or enemy’s email address into a web form.  While many companies eventually move to the industry standard double opt-in, they’re left with a list thousands or more single opt-in addresses without any idea of what to do with them.  Fortunately, there is a solution.

Double Opt-In Vs Permission Pass (Both OK)

Permission Pass works by simply sending out a bulk email to single opt-in subscribers asking them to confirm if they wish to remain subscribed to the newsletter or list.  A subject title as simple as “Did you opt-in?  Why you need to…” can be very effective at capturing the attention of readers.  Only those who explicitly confirm by clicking a link are allowed to remain on the newly created subscribers list.  Everyone else is purged from the database after a few days time is given for most people to read their emails.  This is an excellent way to not only convert a single opt list into double opt, but it also improves the quality of the list by culling out invalid or old email addresses that are no longer used.

While the CAN-SPAM laws don’t address opt-ins as much as opt-outs, it is still important to ensure that only those who wish to receive emails from your company remain on the list.  If too many people, for whatever reason, begin to complain to ISPs and email providers about your company’s tactics, then you run the risk of being labeled a spammer.  This is something which many companies cannot financially afford to see happen.  The good news, however, is that industry standards have been forged in recent years which do a great job of preventing legitimate companies from being grouped in with the bulk spammers.  While older lists may need to be updated using the permission pass strategy, many of those subscribers will agree to be added to the new, improved list.  Best of all, you can cull out the thousands of dead email addresses that simply cost extra money and resources without offering any chance of increasing sales.   By having a thinner, more profitable list of active subscribers, you can increase your response time and drive more sales than ever before.

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Publisher and President of Bethesda Emedia Marketing and Bethesda List Center, David James offers many years of experience in direct marketing, eMail marketing and social media marketing.

Both organizations work with business-to-business marketers, medical and life science, associations, publishers and the like. Follow David on Twitter as well! djamesbethesda

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Image courtesy of (Stuart Miles) from freedigitalphotos