Reconfirming Permission

"The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society just saw its e-mail list slashed from 33,636 addresses to 4,510 and the organization’s e- mail director is happy about it."

That's the lede from a Chief Marketer story on list cleaning tactics. In the case of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, they elected to ask every list member to reconfirm their permission.

An extreme tactic? For some marketers, yes. For the LLS, which was experiencing poor delivery caused by SPAM complaints, it was an appropriate choice. But probably not an easy choice for some marketers to embrace.

The reality of list ownership is that interest in your messages - and with it, permission granted by list members - is variable. Both are affected by a variety of factors, and are generally reflected in simple metrics like open, click and conversion rates. If you've built a sizable list over a long span of time, the problem is compounded - particularly if you haven't built the list in a methodical, focused way. So, the result is often a growing number of list members whose attention, interest and permission begins to flag.

Most marketers' response is to hang on to those members, in the hope that eventually the right message will get through. There are other responses, and they're likely to be more effective. But they generally involve actions that will reduce the overall number of active list members. In some organizations, that's taboo. However, the results cited in this article make a convincing case for focusing on list quality over sheer numbers (and I see identical results with my clients who use email as a marketing channel).


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