Seven Signs You Need to Revive Your Permissions Database

• Tweet
• Buffer

If you have been running an e-mail marketing program for over three years, you need to read this column with a pen and paper nearby. Did you know:

• Every year an average of 30 percent of the people who signed up for your e-mail marketing list will not get your e-mails because their ISP will incorrectly block them.
  
  
• 85 percent of the people on your e-mail list will stop reading your e-mails (without unsubscribing) after the third message your company sends to them (yes, company, not just your group inside the company).
  
  
• 25 percent of the people on your list who receive your e-mails and never open them will be among the top 10 percent of your best customers.
  
  
• An average of 39 percent of your current year subscribers will either unsubscribe, or stop reading/engaging with your e-mails by the end of the year.
  
  
• Over 10 percent of people who initially read your e-mail on their handheld device will file it away, intending to take action, but never doing so.
  
  
• About 15 percent of your list will read your e-mails and look to a social network like Facebook or Twitter to see if others are buzzing about the message or offer before taking action.
  
  
• Over 49 percent of people who are happy with their recent purchase from your company will open future e-mails seven times faster than those who have not made a purchase in over three months.

These seven statistics from the Email Experience Council are pretty powerful by themselves but together paint a very clear picture of why you need to absolutely stay on top of your messaging strategy to your consumers.

With equity in the value of your company's e-mail coming within the first three sends, you cannot afford to missend a message. One of the best ways to help proactively manage and avoid loss in e-mail response or brand loyalty is through the introduction of and use of a preference center.

Here are a few reasons why I like preference centers. Preference centers:

• Enable customers to self-manage the types of messages they want to receive.
  
  
• Reduce the amount of global requests to unsubscribe that you receive.
  
  
• Act as a way to soft sell new products or services when people log in to manage them.
  
  
• Give you a reason to reconnect with customers who seem to have "gone dark."
  
  
• Increase the ability to you to promote multiple channels of connect like e-mail, social, and mobile.

These all help you combat consumer interest attrition and keep e-mail response high. If your e-mail program is over three years old, and you don't have a preference center, or haven't done a preference center update effort recently, I highly recommend it. The results can improve results tremendously. For more insights or details on preference center usage, feel free to shoot me an e-mail, or visit the Email Experience Council for case studies and more statistics.