"In the world of multi-channel and [multi]-location opt-in and opt-out, how do you keep your lists in sync?" asks Dylan Boyd in a post at the Email Wars blog. "Can you?" To explain what he means, he outlines the ways that one client—a retailer—builds its email list: Customers opt in at the website. "They want to simply get [the] newsletter about alerts and deals. Easy and done."
But then come ample opportunities for redundant subscriptions—for instance:
- Customers don't uncheck a subscription box when making a purchase.
- While making an in-store purchase, they give the cashier their email address.
- They subscribe once again when entering a contest designed for users with a mobile device.
Boyd hopes that you have a system for identifying permissions like these that overlap: "Best idea here," he says, "is to flag the change-in-record date, and location–of-subscription, again, or at least have a data point in your subscriber record to reflect this secondary opt-in."
"Where does opt-in start and end and then begin again?" he asks you to consider, "and do you have your systems set up to handle this?"
The Po!nt: Repetition is annoying. Devise a plan to eliminate redundant mailings. Your subscribers will love you for it!
Source: Email Wars. Read the full post here.
by Christina "CK" Kerley
Comments
by michael grover Fri Jul 24, 2009
Also, let customers know at the point at which they are engaging with your business that opting in (or not opting in) won't impact their current status. If I'm already opted in and sign up for something new, Users want to know that they won't get double the emails and also want to know that not opting in won't take them off the list.