Just Wait for Me, OK?
You've probably heard the term emotionally unsubscribed to describe those who never seem to open your email messages, but continue to receive your campaigns because they never ask to be taken off your list.
In a post at the UK DMA Email Marketing blog, however, Dela Quist argues for an alternative term that relocates the negative prefix—unemotionally subscribed. In other words, these recipients remain interested in your product or service, but they just don't need it right now. "They would prefer to ignore your messages until they are ready to buy," he says, "because it is easier than unsubscribing and having to remember your URL, or Google you at a later date."
To make his point, Quist cites some interesting client results:
- Ten percent of one company's revenue in 2008 came from subscribers who opened not a single email in 2007.
- An outstanding offer from another company generated £70,000 (approximately $113,000) in sales from subscribers who had not opened the previous 25 to 40 email messages.
"With very few exceptions," Quist says, "when it comes to sales and marketing, long-term inactivity is perfectly normal. After all, how often do you actively interact with marketing communications of any kind from a car dealer, insurance company, estate agent, bank, consumer electronics retailer, hotel chain, etc.?"
The Po!nt: Let them take their time. Some of your inactives may well have checked out, but Quist suggests that many more linger for a reason: "[T]hey don't need you—yet!"
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Comments
What else are we to do BUT subscribe to many newsletters that will further our understanding of this giant step we are taking into a more abundant cyberspace? If we want news previously dispensed in other formats, we now have to subscribe to new outlets.
Did anyone ever question when we opened the newspaper? Did we read Monday's news on Tuesday? When did we happen to have time to sit and read a magazine we subscribed to? No one ever knew if or when we decided to read the content of delivered news.
Now, however there are measurements on sometimes overly narcissicistic blobs that are subscribed to, but do we need the exact message at that exact moment it is delivered? The answer is a resounding NO!
It isn't as if the blogs and email newsletters are up to the minute news or what's happening in the real world. Therefore, the LOOK AT ME, OPEN ME NOW, HYPE gets more annoying with every passing week.
Newspapers magazines, and newsletters that were mailed to recipients had more appeal than what I see now. Even the Big Boys in marketing and advertising are not really putting out well-written content; or anything I really care to digest during the course of my busy day. And my days are MUCH busier than they used to be.
Not only do we have to work much harder in this economy, we're in a learning curve, plus the pressure of being slammed with what we believed would likely be useful content . It is no wonder many people just hit DELETE. We don't have time to delve into meaningless content and philosophical meanderings. Get to the point and make it work. Journalists are quite good at it!
Janet Hansen
Brio Public Relations