Ins & Outs of e-Mail Marketing . . . Getting Permission!
 

According to E-Biz Solutions (summer 2000), two-thirds of people who receive unsolicited e-mails don't like receiving them and consider them spam (41% delete them right away). On the other hand, only 3% of requested e-mails go unread. That means almost all solicited e-mails reach their targets. This is how you want to build relationships with your customers and prospects.

By obtaining a person's permission before sending e-mail information, you can expect people to become active participants and to not be irritated when they receive e-mail communications from your company.

The first rule of permission marketing is that it's based on selfishness: Consumers will grant a company permission to communicate only if they know what's in it for them. A company has to reward consumers, explicitly or implicitly, for paying attention to its messages. That's why the Net is such a powerful medium. It changes everything. You can use e-mail to communicate with people frequently, quickly and unobtrusively - so long as they've given you permission to do that. 

People understand this concept, which is why they get so nervous about spam. The first time they get an unsolicited e-mail, they think, "This didn't cost the sender anything. If I let him get away with this, there will be thousands more just like him. My e-mail box will overflow; the Web won't be fun anymore." But if you get permission to use e-mail to deliver marketing messages, and if people agree to pay attention to those messages - you've changed the game. When consumers are spammed by e-marketers, their feelings are likely translated to their perceptions of the business - a company that spams is not the kind of company I want to do business with.

Steps to Take to Launch a Permission-Based e-Marketing Program

	Start by reading Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers, by Seth Godin. Then, after you have the background information you need, train your team with the concepts.
	Send a print mailing to all clients, prospects and referral sources to obtain their permission to send them e-mail marketing communications and request their e-mail addresses.
	Input all e-mail addresses into your database.
	Set up a new database field in your database that will track the current disposition of your contacts with regard to e-marketing: "Yes," they want to receive e-mail communications, "No," they indicated they do not want to receive e-mail communications, or "Unknown," which indicates you have not determined the clients' choice yet.

There's one last barrier to overcome. If you get permission to talk to customers, you'd better have something to say. The point of permission marketing is not just to engage people, but also to teach them about your products - and get them to become customers. Research has shown the response rate to permission marketing is as high as 24% (the average response rate for other marketing efforts is 1-2%). 
 

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