Tips on How Not to Lose Readers (and Customers)

Want to hold on to your e-zine readers? Then respect their channel preferences and learn how to take no for an answer.

That’s the word from Ernan Roman, who was leading firms like IBM through what he called consensual marketing long before Seth Godin came on the scene.

In his new book, “Opt-in Marketing,” Roman points to these depressing statistics from Bigfoot Interactive:

*57.7% of U.S. Internet users delete newsletters or other requested e-mail.

*62.8% delete marketing or promotional messages that they asked for.

And the reasons for this are spam and a general erosion of consumer trust.

“Look at it this way,” Roman writes. “If used irresponsibly, e-mail becomes a cheap, easy way to tick off far more individuals than ever before.”

But customer preferences aren’t hard to figure out. According to Roman, a Quris/Executive Summary Consulting survey identified the following e-mail practices, and asked consumers to rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being “very positive”):

*Unsubscribe option in all e-mails: 4.7

*Explicit no-share-address policy: 4.6

*48-hour e-mail support answers: 4.5

*Personal preferences page that can be edited: 4.4

*Provide phone number in e-mails: 4.4

*Explicit privacy policy: 4.3

*Double opt-in confirmation: 4.2

And at the bottom of the scale, we find these ratings:

*Making assumptions about permission: 1.5

*Making assumptions about the right to share e-mail addresses: 1.4

So there’s good news for companies that send e-mail newsletters.

“Deployed responsibly—as a retention tool, as part of the integrated direct marketing media mix——e-mail can bring relevant, timely messages of value that enhance and extend the consensual relationship and thus increase customer lifetime value.”

What’s Roman urge you to do? Here’s a checklist:

1. Set a privacy policy, publish it and live by it. And the policy should be based on customer permission for virtually everything.

2. Give customers plenty of opportunity to provide feedback, or to change their minds. Don’t just publish an e-zine. Let people respond to it.

3. Messaging in accordance with customer preferences. In other words, don’t send e-mail newsletters to people who haven’t asked for them.

4. Be responsive. If people do have a gripe, make sure that you get back to them.

“There isn’t any other way to say this: Marketers must meet customers’ expectations for e-mail responsiveness,” Roman concludes. “It’s difficult—but not impossible. Respond within 24 hours, even if it’s to say you’re delayed. And, of course, respect the customer’s name and spell it correctly. Substitute trust for permission.”

“Opt-In Marketing (Increase Sales Exponentially With Consensual Marketing) by Ernan Roman and Scott Hornstein was published by McGraw-Hill.