Email marketing is direct marketing by email: commercial messages sent to prospects or current customers. Almost any such message can be called email marketing in the broad sense. The more specific practice is permission email marketing, where the recipient has agreed in advance to receive advertising or marketing. It is also called opt-in email or permission marketing. Three elements must be present: user consent, delivery by email, and information that is valuable to the recipient.
For the sender, the cost is low. For the recipient, the format is timely and detailed enough to help handle urgent matters. That explains why permission-based messages tend to have high open rates.
The key word is permission. No matter who you are mailing, you need consent first; otherwise it is not permission email marketing. Sending bulk email blindly gives poor results and wastes money. Consent is not a permanent license, either. If the content does not match what the subscriber needs, or if the sending frequency becomes irritating, people will unsubscribe. Mailing them after that returns the activity to non-permission email marketing.
What makes permission legitimate
For a campaign to be permission-based, several conditions need to hold:
- Before any bulk send, the sender must have the recipient's agreement. The recipient must be willing in their own right or must have actively asked to receive the messages.
- Contacts can join the list freely and leave it freely at any time.
- Contact information stays private. It must not be shared or sold to third parties in any form.
- The sender respects the recipient's wishes by sending periodic, relevant, valuable information and resources that fit the list's theme. Unrelated information, advertising, and content should not be sent.
Three forms of permission
Permission email marketing commonly takes one of three forms.
Single opt-in email marketing. The user actively enters an email address and joins the list. The sender does not need to send a confirmation email.
Double opt-in email marketing. The user registers for the list and then receives an email asking them to click a confirmation link. If they do not click, their address is not added to the sending list.
Opt-out email marketing. The website adds email addresses it has collected—possibly from account registration—to a mailing list and sends messages whether the user wants them or not. In other words, the default is inclusion rather than active consent.
Why permission-based email performs better
Permission-based email has clear advantages over traditional promotion and over unsolicited email.
- It is inexpensive. Campaigns can be aimed at specific prospects with content and product information that match their interests, so targeting is precise.
- Return on investment is trackable and conversion rates are high. It is considered the most effective online marketing strategy after search engine marketing.
- It is more controllable than a website, blog, or similar channel. The sender can time messages and set frequency according to the customer's buying cycle.
- Email marketing management systems make it possible to track opens, clicks, conversions, and related metrics with precision.
- Results can accumulate over time. Permission-based email creates more opportunities for repeat purchases than search engine marketing and can support automated selling.
- The audience is broad. More than half of internet users send or receive email every day.
- It offers strong value for the money.
- Targeting and feedback are strong. Because email is easy to respond to, users are more likely to give feedback, which helps the sender understand customer needs.
The inbox filter reality
More than 300 email filtering mechanisms are used by different mailbox servers. Even the best email marketing practices can at best ensure that no more than 30% of messages reach the inbox. If the email is spam, the share that gets through is even lower. Permission email marketing is therefore the industry standard. Build a way to collect permission-based users around your own creative approach, and email marketing can become a channel with very high conversion.