Seth's Blog: Email campaign case studies (one good, one bad)

In one week, I heard from two companies in the same industry. The comparison is instructive, I think.

Every month, I get a great email from Paul McGowan, founder of PS Audio. His newsletter is anticipated, personal and relevant. I signed up for it and I look forward to it.

Paulmentions his products, their reviews and their new technology. He alsotells stories and acts like a real person. Because I signed up for thenewsletter, I open it. Because he never abuses my trust, I trust him.If I hit reply, he writes back.

When it's time to buy the sort of thing he sells, I won't look around much, because I'm already sold.

Ialso got two identical emails (with different subject lines) from aspeaker company called Thiel Audio. I never signed up to hear from thiscompany, and judging from the email addresses they used, they harvestedmy address either from an attendee list at a conference at which Ispoke or from an old business card.

The problem with believingthat just because you have access to an address you have the right tomail is that there is no friction with email. It's free. You can emaila million people in a heartbeat, costing the recipients time (and thusmoney) and you not much of either. The recipient knows this, and feelsexploited or cheated. It's not fair, and so the lack of frictionbackfires. The very ease of interruption makes the interruption moreannoying.

I get a lot of spam from non-reputable companies, butit was surprising to get this html ad via email from a company thatused to have a good reputation.

My email box is where I live allday. They showed up, uninvited, and worked to sell me something eventhough they had no connection with me as a consumer or a blogger.That's not brand building, it's the opposite. Even worse, it'sundependable.

With PS Audio, Paul realizes that over time, themore months I get the newsletter, the greater the chance I'm going totrust and like and buy from him. For Thiel, the opposite is true. Themore they send, the more people will get in the habit of deleting orunsubscribing. It's not an asset, it's a risk. It doesn't scale, itshrinks.

No doubt, there are old-school marketers who will talkabout their right to email or interrupt because it's not against thelaw, or perhaps it generates short-term sales. The thing is, consumersnow have rights too. The right to ignore, to distrust and to choosesomeone else when it comes time to spend money.

There are ahundred ways to skulk around, to collect email addresses, to writeclever privacy policies or to argue about whether opt-out ("you canalways unsubscribe!") is a valid way to build a brand. None of thoseschemes work. What works is exactly one way: making promises and thenkeeping them. Every person who unsubscribes or deletes or just stopsreading your mail is a person lost, a negative word-of-mouthopportunity waiting to happen. 

Run an ad in traditional media oronline and promise me a great newsletter, or a prize or news or even adiscount if I sign up. That's clear and honest and it works.

A spam campaign feels like a smart idea, but over time, the more you use it, the less your brand is worth. A permission campaign, on the other hand, only grows in value, until it gets big enough that you can build an entire business around it.

Earningpermission is a long-term, profitable, scalable strategy that pays foritself. Think about how much better off a brand would be if it took thetime to make promises, keep them and be transparent about itscommunications.

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