Email Append Good or Bad
I have just been reading a blog post by Ryan Deutsch on Email Insider it is about the use of Email Append here is a quote from the post to explain the process.
“On Tuesday, I came across a blog post denouncing the use of opt-out email appends. For those of you not familiar with the practice, it is essentially a quick way for marketers with large postal files to add emails addresses to their database. For example, Acme Company sends their postal file to a database company, said database company matches Acme’s postal records to the records in their database, and when a “match” is found with an email address they add that record (with the new email address) to an “append” file. The database company then does a quick “welcome” email to the entire append file with an opt-out only link and then ships the resulting file back to Acme company. The issue with this process is that Acme Company now has a file that is NOT opt-in and could cause serious delivery problems for their business.”
I heard about this for the first time a few months back and my thoughts have not changed. I did not blog about it at the time, but the subject has come up again and I think it is important that those in email marketing stand up and put our colours on the mast for good practice.
Personally I think this is dreadful and close to spamming, yes I know you have the permission to call or mail so why not email. I feel (I have not tested this) that people will take the telephone calls and letter but the inbox is a bit of a sacred space especially if you get the wrong address.
I have 6 address: 2 aliases I use to sign up for everything, one that I use for personal, one for business on the web another for business Cards and one for buying stuff. If I get something that, I am not expecting I unsubscribe or bin it. This is not permission based and feels like spamming.
I know that the companies are looking for every opportunity to maximize the ROI on marketing spends and to maintain revenue. However, treat the list email or postal with the respect it deserves and use your permissions wisely.
If you have a strong relationship with a client base and communicate through traditional means then use that to ask for the email address and get permission to use it. Make them an offer they cannot refuse they will give you the address if they trust you.
The Exceptions
There is an exception where append might have some merit, if the list quality is poor i.e. old or unrefined then the expense of using the traditional links may be hard to achieve a meaningful result with the required ROI. The append process will not damage an already poor relationship and it could refine the list. Although I still think the resultant list will be of dubious quality. So they did not unsubscribe, does that mean they will buy something.
Does anyone have and example where this has worked?
Another question
Have you ever bought something from a spam email?
How is your Email program is it hitting the goals you set for it?
If you are looking for support with you email projects am always available 20 minutes is free I love to talk about this stuff. skype Market-that ( Time check Scotland is on GMT)
