Having worked online for the last 10 years, I have to admit my somewhat obsessive tendencies of keeping my shoes paired up and nicely straight in the wardrobe has been transferred to keeping my inbox clean and the information I receive via email nice and tidy. Put simply, if it isn’t relevant I have neither the time to read it, or more importantly, the inclination to keep it cluttering my inbox. As weird as some people might find this, to an email marketer I’m positive I’m one of the easy ones. There are more complicated demographics than me!
Anyway, I’m recently married and it struck me that my new wife, who I share our ‘home laptop’ with (things on the desktop everywhere!), still didn’t really have much of an idea about what I do for a living. Of course she should pay more attention, yet why would she care too much – she’s a Physiotherapist, doesn’t work online, wouldn’t know an ESP from an ESPN and we’re using our laptop in very different ways. I suspect that’s the same for email. Sounds like a good opportunity for me to interview Jo(e) Public for her opinion:
Q: Firstly, how many email accounts do you use? Which accounts are they?
Wife: Two – one for work only (very rarely used, never receive email marketing to this address) and my Gmail account for personal use.
Q: How many email newsletters do you subscribe to? Who are they?
Wife: 3 or 4 different work related newsletters. Outside of that, everything else is via my Gmail account and is varied in reason:
- Waterstones – never read it – it was set up automatically when I got a reward card
- Holy Moly – never read it – delete straight away
- Voucher.com – only read it if I’m planning on going out for dinner and want a cheeky deal
- HSBC – never read, always generic
- Tough Guy (don’t ask) – I only read it if I have signed up to this year’s event
- BA – only read if I’m planning a trip
- NEC – never read
- The Venetian – will only read if I plan to go to Las Vegas again
Q: How often do you actually read these? What determines whether you read them or not?
Wife: In truth, not very often. I don’t have time to read them all and will only have a wee look if something in the title (subject line to us!) grabs me. I obviously always read the emails in my work account as they impact on me professionally.
Q: Ever thought of unsubscribing from those you don’t read?
Wife: Why? It only takes a few seconds to delete the rubbish from my inbox. (doesn’t take long to unsubscribe?!)
Q: You receive an email from a retailer you’ve recently purchased another pair of shoes from. You don’t recall signing up for an email newsletter. Do you a) unsubscribe, b) report as spam or c) delete?
Wife: I would just delete. As I said, it only takes 2 seconds. You never know, I may buy another pair of shoes from our joint account in the future!
So there we have it, not very complex questions but very honest answers. The fact is, most ESP’s are able to provide functionality or services in order to cater for different types of recipients but the fact still remains, as in all walks of life, there are exceptions to all rules. Like any job, email marketing is hard work but with people like Mrs M around that hard work keeps us on our toes ….and me in a job.
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I feel exactly the same! I have subscribed to so many newsletters but I don’t have time to read them all. Instead of unsubscribing I am hitting delete button. Hmmm….that makes me think about our subscribers: how many of them feels that way and what to do to change it! Difficult but possible.
Thanks for the comment Magda. It’s a very interesting point, which really highlights the challenge email marketers face to keep emails relevant. Email reactivation campaigns can often be a good way of incentivising/reminding lapsed customers why they signed up to your email in the first instance. Trying different incentives based on past behaviour can sometimes work. If not and you tried everything perhaps consider deleting the ‘deleters’ from your list! It may seem a little drastic but it’s always better to have quality over quantity in my opinion.
Hi, I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please :)
Hi Alex,
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Hope this helps?
Thanks.
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. :)
I really liked your blog!