The Email Wars

So often publishers feel that they have the right to use your email as much as they want, with whom they want and for what purposes they want to. Now being that in the old skool world that they came from, many of them are still trying to figure out the ropes of how email marketing works for them in a print world. 

I am never sure why I get some emails that I do from them when they have simply rented the use of their lists to a third party to send me emails that in many cases are not relevant. The house file is a sacred one and in the old world of DM there were often few things one could do to keep DM from the mail box on the street. Our way of dealing with it was to simply take it from the box to the curb or the round file next to our kitchen or work desk. In today’s world we can simply unsubscribe and these publishers are now seeing how important it is to own that relationship for the long term when we can churn so fast.

Do you really want to always be “building” you list, making up for all of those that leave you due to bad emails and bad email marketing practices? Not really. Not now. So when I got this email from Forbes I was a little elated to see them asking me if it was okay? If not no big deal to them as they would rather have me for a longer time. I have been a print subscriber for years and love the magazine (yes I LOVE print, there I said it). I am one of those that has a stack of magazines at all times next to my door to carry home and read each night or when time permits on a flight.

Publishers of print need to follow this example and embrace this world of the new house list. The one where churn can be immediate and the cost of acquisition is often more expensive than it was in years past.