Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Just because they opened it doesn't mean they acted on it. I often send several emails for one event. Depends how many people you are talking about. If it is a couple on a list of 5000 so what.

You might be able to delete those who have signed up off the successive emails, but you shoudl not take the prospects off.

I beleive we worry way too much about a few people who complain about email we send. If it becomes a landslide then you have done something wrong. Has anyone checked on who the complaints came from to see if the are targeted prospects.

You can always change up the emails also. Make them look difrerent and use a different subject. This is a good idea anyway.

We do this all the time, especially weeding out people who have already registered for the event, but you have to be careful that your registration patterns will allow you to do this profitably.

[Question: Are you sending the exact same message four times, or are you changing it up a little so that it does not look like a repeat?]

The good news is that people are taking the time to tell you this, and they are not unsubscribing.

I think what you have to do is go back and see how many times, on average, someone has to get the message before they actually sign up. If 100% of people are signing up the first time they open the message, then you could drop the resends from all previous openers.

However, what if you determine that the people who sign up after seeing the second or third or fourth message have also opened the previous messages? If you don't do resends then, you will lose a lot of revenue.

In addition, some people don't really know their schedule so far in advance, and while they open and see message nos. 1 and 2, they don't know that they can commit until message no. 3. If you don't send them anything beyond message 1, they are lost.

Maybe you could add a blurb to each mailing that says, "You're important to us, so we'll send you another reminder of this event as the date draws nearer. If you'd prefer not to hear about this event again, however, just use this link. You'll still be on our list for other notices, but we won't remind you about this one again. Thank you."

You could then weed out people who clicked that link.

The negative of that, of course, is that it takes away some of the urgency. "Oh, if I don't sign up now, they will just remind me again later. I'll wait."

You could just try weeding out the openers as a test and see what happens, but chances are you have the data already to know whether resending is important. True, you will continue to upset a few people who don't want it, but they are NOT leaving the fold (if anything, they are probably your most passionate customers).

Another idea: When these people call in (assuming they are far and few between), flag their account "one-time only mailing" and just send them the first message and that's it. I think over only one or two events you'll have weeded out the handful of people who are actually "upset" by this (but who still love you enough to call!).

Hope this disjointed reply was of some benefit.

Life in DC good?

Paul