What do you do when a new customer makes a purchase? Do you automatically check that box and make the customer remove the checkmark? You know the box I mean—the one that “opts in” to future marketing e-mails. Some marketers say they’d rather be known for respecting their customers’ privacy, so they don’t check that box. Aggressive marketers check the box and try to hide it at the bottom of the screen in small print so that the busy shopper doesn’t notice it and uncheck it. What do you do?
It’s a difficult choice.
Those good-hearted privacy-respecting marketers are loved by their customers, but there are a lot fewer of them,
because their customers rarely check the box themselves. Those marketers have very short mailing lists.
Those aggressive marketers that automatically check the box get large mailing lists, but also many unhappy customers who have no idea why they are getting this e-mail—they unsubscribe. And they may not have a warm feeling for the company that sent them what they consider to be spam.
Live Nation, a leading Broadway show and concert event company, takes a middle ground, by automatically checking the box, but sending a gentle introductory e-mail to start. That “welcome” e-mail stresses the value of receiving future e-mails and provides an easy way to opt out. Guess what? Linda Villwock, Live Nation’s head of Internet marketing, reports they get very few opt outs. Why?
First, the welcome e-mail is sent quickly after the purchase, when customers still remember why you’re allowed to contact them. More importantly, that e-mail explains the benefits of being on Live Nation’s mailing list. Why does this work better than explaining everything up front?
Perhaps this success is explained by the moment of purchase not being the best time to ask the “opt in” question. People are focused on what they are trying to do—purchase. So it’s easy to sneak something by them. But it’s wrong, because that will backfire. What Live Nation does is to sneak that first opt-in by them, but then openly explain what they did and ask if it was OK—at a later time when the customer can really make a good decision on that separate question that has nothing to do with the original purchase.
Your welcome e-mail is the single most-opened piece of e-mail you’ll ever send—75 percent of recipients open it. However, according to research firm Marketing Sherpa, Live Nation is part of just 48 percent of companies that even send a welcome e-mail for an “opt in.” Even fewer, only 10 percent, go further by sending a special offer in that welcome e-mail, according to Brian Eisenberg.
If your company pays attention to that welcome e-mail, you’ll form more relationships with your customers, just the way Live Nation has.
