The Email Wars

We often talk about email preference centers, email frequency and optimizing the amount of emails we send in our weekly thoughts and conversations about email marketing. But all of these are really marketer side actions and don’t really focus on the email subscriber as directly as we think they do. So what about a “pause” button that would allow subscribers in either your emails or your preference centers to activate a PAUSE on your email campaigns. Now I am not talking about an unsubscribe or opt out feature, or even a change in frequency (please only email me once a month, week, etc) but actually creating a way for subscribers to pause a relationship.

Now this is not very marketer centric, but in the end it should not be. It should be about the subscriber giving them the instant ability to pause a relationship for 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, etc. Microsoft flirted with this ability back in 2008 with a pause plugin for Outlook that never really went anywhere. It did not actually pause emails, but simply placed a delivery delay on them. Now that is not truly the direction I think benefits anyone. Why? Well the consumer is still going to get emails that might have expired items, codes, deals, or information that is now out of date. That only creates frustration and a bad user experience. What I would like to see the industry explore is really investigating how to pause a relationship placing all communications that the individual has opted into on a time based pause.

It is really a short term opt out. So as an email marketer and someone that works on email programs why would I want to advance this notion? Well it is in the best interest of both the marketer and the consumer. We are not always in market for products, information or open to reading every email that comes into our inbox. It dramatically hurts open, click and conversion rates as people at times simply do not have the time nor the reasons to engage. So could you do this?

I can hear some C-level execs saying “are you crazy?”. Well no I am not. I think that we would see a direct increase in goals if we allowed people to have greater control in emails while at the same time it could reduce list churn and unsubscribes due to the fact of being overwhelmed in life and not having the minutes in a day to engage. So how could you present this to them and make a case for it?

1. Testing this could prove to keep the health of your list in good shape.

2. Giving greater control could reduce your acquisition costs of always making up for those that are disengaged or unsubscribing.

3. Allowing people to tell you when they are engaged or “in market” might increase the conversion rates of your programs.

Now all of this is simply an idea that I don’t think anyone has truly tested yet. But it is something that I really want to explore with some programs I am working on. Being selective in an “X” subscriber presenation of this offer could allow a program to adequately test this while placing short term periods of time as an option. I would actually present this to those that are not converting or interacting with the past X campaigns. Not those that are always engaged, shopping, or displaying interest through actions.

Do you think it is an idea worth pursuing? How would you test it?