Subscription practices in the wild

It’s always interesting to look at what other email marketers are doing and how closely their practices align with what I am recommending to clients.
Today’s example is a welcome message I received from Marriott. During my recent trip to visit a client, I gave Marriott my email address. They sent me a welcome message, primarily text that looked good even with images turned off. The text of the email told me why I was receiving the email and what I could expect.

Since you recently supplied your email address to Marriott, you’ll now receive advance notice of new hotels, services to save you time and money, and hotel specials and packages.
You’ll also receive eBreaks – 20% or more off last-minute weekend travel, promoted nowhere else! See a sample.
We’ll keep our messages brief, fast and fun. To ensure our email reaches your inbox, add us to your address book now.
Should you decide to unsubscribe, simply click on the link at the bottom of any email you receive.
Welcome to service above and beyond.

I clicked through the unsubscribe link to my preferences page. There they told me what I was subscribed to, what the emails would give me and how frequently I would receive mail. They also provided links to sample emails so I could see what it was I would be receiving.

Screenshot of Subscription page
Screenshot of subscription page with sample emails opened
How many good practices did Marriott get in this email?

  • I received a clear welcome message
  • I was able to read the email without images turned on
  • I had a clear unsubscription link that led me directly to a subscription center
  • The subscription center shows which emails I am subscribed to
  • I was not subscribed to all available emails by default
  • I was told the frequency of messages
  • I was able to preview messages I would receive

The end result? I stayed on the Marriott list instead of unsubscribing immediately.

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How can an article be about delivery without ever mentioning the word? By actually looking at the effectiveness of the overall campaign and measuring how the lists actually perform. In the article, Politico used a number of criteria to evaluate different email lists and programs.

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Unsubscribe rates as a measure of engagement.

Over at Spamtacular Mickey talks about the email marketers’ syllogism.

  1. Anyone who doesn’t want our mail will opt-out.
  2. Most people don’t opt-out.
  3. Therefore, most people want our mail.

This clearly fallacious reasoning is something I deal with frequently with my clients, particularly those who come to me for reputation repair. They can’t understand why people are calling them spammers, because their unsubscribe rates and complaint rates are very low. The low complaints and unsubscribes must mean their mail is wanted. Unfortunately, the email marketers’ syllogism leads them to faulty conclusions.
There are many reasons people don’t opt-out of mail they don’t want. Some of it may be practical, the mail never hits their inbox, either due to ISP level filters or their own personal filters. Some people take a stance that they do not opt out of mail they did not opt-in to and if they don’t recognize the company, they won’t opt-out.
In any case, low levels of opt-outs or even this-is-spam hits does not mean that recipients want that mail. The sooner marketers figure this out, the better for them and their delivery.

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