| Why Opt-Out is Better than Opt-In for Your Firm |
By Patrick Cahill There. I said it. I don't accept the "opt-in/inbound only" rule in which firms should only e-mail, market, and sell to those who ask to receive communications. I don't accept it even though many professionals are pushing hard for an opt-in only world. Do not get me wrong. Inbound marketing works, and has its prominent place, but major players give the impression that it's the only way to build your marketing list. It's not. With that off my chest, let me explain why I don't accept the "opt-in/inbound only" rule. The Myth of Opt-Out No one is (publicly) endorsing the value of the tried and true "opt-out/outbound" approach. For many firms, outbound marketing equals e-mailing, and we're told e-mailing cold lists will hurt our brands and our deliverability--we'll become "that company." We're afraid of alienating prospects or being called Spammers. (Ouch!) This fear overrides us. The reality is many of us have firms that are not Dell. Not McKinsey. Our brands are unknown. Risking a few upsets while reaching out with relevant content to thousands that would otherwise never hear of your firm is, well, worth it. Best of all, there is a not so secret formula to doing this successfully:
Treat Them with Equal Respect If you're going to e-mail professionals that have never heard of you, make sure you lead with your best content. No surprise, as you should do this every time you hit the send button. Distribute relevant, quality content to your prospects. Do not contact them too frequently. No different than your opt-in list, right? That's the point. NetProspex CEO Gary Halliwell had this to say on the company blog after reviewing MarketingSherpa's 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide: The email survey also shows that a majority of business people don't consider an email to be SPAM if it is from an unrecognized source--if the message is relevant and well targeted. Now that is really interesting. So relevance trumps permission. As David Greiner, founder of CampaignMonitor, puts it, prospects do not see a SPAM button. They see an IRRELEVANT button. Big difference. Prospects wonder what each e-mail can do for them. Why are they getting it? They hit that SPAM button because the e-mail they received is irrelevant. Often, it's far from SPAM by the definition of the law. For example, imagine you signed up to receive e-mails from us. You're located in Seattle. We keep e-mailing about our breakfast seminar in Orlando. In Houston. In London. You're getting "Two weeks until" and "Last chance to sign-up" announcements. Not one e-mail is relevant to you. You'd probably be more frustrated with that opt-in situation than if you got two e-mails from a firm that has chosen to introduce itself with white papers relevant to marketing challenges you're facing without requesting your permission to do so. Real-Life Proof With this research and hypothetical situation in hand, let's look at how two of our clients have approached building their e-mail lists with targeted, relevant prospects. Client A: The number of e-newsletter subscribers directly correlated with revenue--there was no question that a doubling of list size would lead to a doubling in revenue. Unfortunately, the subscriber base had increased little over three years. Even after a year of full time PR effort, reaching out to bloggers, and working on putting content out on social networks, the list size hardly moved. The company began testing more aggressive list building tactics. In less than a month, more e-mails were added, and retained, as a small project than were gained in a year of proactive online PR. The Bottom Line: Out of 7,600 e-mails added to the house list, only 500 unsubscribed after eight e-mails over two months. Client B: A global consultancy knew it needed to drive a greater number of conversations to continue growth. With limited marketing resources it decided to leverage its extensive resource library to e-mail cold prospects. The company segmented names by industry and title type and sent a round of three introductory emails. The Bottom Line: Out of 7,000 e-mails added to a house list of 14,000, only 60 people unsubscribed after multiple blasts! Worth a Few Upsets New subscribers appreciate the value of the content you market with. (Some write back saying so!) That's because sharing relevant content will help your prospects address challenges they face every day. You're not bothering your prospects, you are helping them. Yes, in response to the "opt-in only" type, some did not appreciate getting added. They unsubscribed. They sent back angry rants. They marked the e-mails as SPAM. But people do that even when they opt-in for messages. It's part of the business. It's like when a salesperson gets hung up on one dial and thanked for perfect timing on the next. Do not be afraid to initiate the conversation. Your prospects will thank you. Then hire you. Patrick R. Cahill is a principal at Rally Point Webinars who specializes in marketing, business operations, and CRMs. Click here to email Patrick. |