You Said You’d Write
An article on Campaign Monitor - How Far Does Permission Stretch? - got me thinking about e-mail newsletters and how many companies waste new prospects by not following up.
I mean, have you ever subscribed to an e-mail newsletter on a website promising you articles or free tips and heard nothing for months, if at all?
If you have a website and you have bought into the whole permission marketing approach; if you promise something, you need to deliver, especially something as simple as a newsletter.
You have done the hard work encouraging someone to subscribe to your newsletter - yes, that’s the hard bit, getting someone to trust you up front. So, not delivering something you promised is not only very wasteful, it will lose you that trust pretty much straightaway. It’s like letting someone walking out of your shop without even talking to them.
I see, even now, subscriber lists growing on some websites that sit… waiting… waiting for that first e-mail. It’s like having a ready made list of sales prospects sitting on your desk becoming more and more irrelevant with every day that passes.
Would your Sales Director let you get away with that? I think not.
Comment by Mathew Patterson June 22, 2007 @ 4:01 am
Thanks for the link Craig,
I think you make a great point - I’ve seen (and even been responsible for) this myself. In my experience, people hold back and hold back, waiting for exactly the right moment and the perfect content for that issue #1, and never get there.
Better to just commit to doing it, get started, and improve things over time. You may find you change direction, but you won’t work that out without taking action.