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An ASTECH InterMedia Reference Article |
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E-mail Marketing and Trust by Jim Hart |
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"The franchise" for newspapers, or any media company, is based on trust. If the consumer doesn't trust us, then they won't believe what we say — it's as simple as that. As e-mail marketing is growing in popularity, we are seeing methods being used at some newspapers that could destroy this trust overnight.
As newspapers have begun to pursue direct marketing opportunities, this trust has been leveraged at times to gather data that could be used to drive further communication. Some of the most obvious examples of this are contests and events. Consumers fill out an entry blank of some kind, provide some relevant (hopefully) information and hope to win a prize. They also have come to understand that they will probably get on some kind of mailing list.
More and more, there is a move toward allowing the consumer to be more actively involved with how, or whether, that information will be used. Savvy direct marketers only want to communicate with those that want to be communicated with. Even marginal direct marketers are stepping up in this regard if only to try to fend off legislation that is likely to be driven harder by offended parties.
Know Your Options
Generations ago, the "negative option" approach was very common when gathering information. Basically, if the consumer fills out the information, they are going to be contacted. By anybody and everybody — some relevant, most not so. This is appropriate today only when the only reason to fill out the card is to request information, no contest, etc.
We then graduated to what is called "opt-out." This is typically the little tiny check box at the end of the long warranty survey card. It says something to the effect that "if you do not want to receive relevant offers from our business partners, check this box." If the box was not checked, there was an implied consent that the consumer was fair game.
Next came "opt-in." You guessed it, the consumer had to check the box saying "I want to receive…" The great thing about this is that the consumer is in control and they are asking you to talk to them. The return-on-investment of time and money should go up for both the consumer and the marketer. People who peddle names in bulk hate it simply because the bulk goes down.
The Internet has brought us "double-opt-in." In this scenario, the consumer asks to be added to a distribution list of some kind. The marketer then sends a reply saying "thank you for signing up, this will only take effect if you respond to this e-mail…" or something similar. The intent of this is to verify that that consumer did, in fact, sign up. Not someone claiming to be that person. I'm sure you can imagine, with no trouble, viruses, worms or idiots signing up whole lists of people for all kinds of things just for laughs.
We are seeing newspapers use negative option methods to capture bulk e-mail addresses online. No check box, no opt-in, no double opt-in, nothing. Just a buried privacy policy that says "when you sign up for something, you are fair game not only from us, but to anybody we decide to sell your information to."
When asked about it, they often respond "this is what direct mailers have been doing for years." True. Those years were from about 1920 to 1985! This isn't direct mail. Holding up true junk mail to defend sending spam is as weak an argument as possible. Besides, those junk mailers were anonymous companies bombarding strangers. You are the newspaper, leveraging your trusted franchise to get that e-mail address. If you don't hold yourself to a higher standard, believe me, the consumer will.
Getting Ahead of the Curve
We feel that it is very important for newspapers and other media companies to be ahead of the curve when it comes to policies for gathering and using consumer information. The added benefit of doing this now is that you will be much more likely to maintain your momentum in the face of almost any privacy legislation. Here are some suggestions:
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Get a base list. If you have gathered e-mail addresses without specific permission to use them, do one of two things: throw them away and start over, or draft a one-time-only request for specific permission to the current list. What comes back is your new list. |
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Get more than the e-mail address. An e-mail address without additional information is five times more useless than a simple street address. At least with a street address you know how close someone is to a given store, what the demographics of their neighborhood are, whether they are a subscriber, etc. Decide on some demographic groups you want to target (ethnic, seniors, families with kids, etc.) and always ask these questions. Also, when it's relevant to context of the promotion, gather specific intent to purchase data (PC, home, car, furniture). This data has a short shelf life, but is very valuable. |
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Stop thinking in terms of bulk and cost per thousand. This is your mass media background showing through. Response is king and response comes from relevance, not bulk. Fortunately, e-mail response and communications are easy to track. Start charging for results. Be confident, it's contagious. |
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Use double opt-in. Someone signs up for one of your e-mail newletters, or enters a contest and gives you permission to market them, send a confirming e-mail and only add them if they respond. This covers you in the future if someone begins to yell spam. It also verifies that the email address they gave you not only exists, it is their e-mail address. |
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Treat others the way you would want to be treated. If you went to a web site and filled out a form and started getting bombarded from all angles, you would not be happy at all. What would your opinion be of a company that did this? If their response was, "Read our buried privacy policy…" would you ever volunteer information to this company again? Would you run classified advertising with them? Would you feel differently about the credibility of the information they distribute? |
Communicating via e-mail has the potential to reposition almost everything we do, from private party, help wanted, etc., right down to the content of the paper itself. This will only happen if we can maintain that delicate trust that is the foundation of our franchise. What took centuries to build can be seriously eroded overnight if we are not careful.
This article was written exclusively for ASTECH InterMedia's web site. Jim Hart is vice president of ASTECH InterMedia. For more information, he can be reached at 623.875.3000.
© 2005 ASTECH InterMedia, Inc.
