It is the same reason why "paid" magazines (publications people buy) average much higher reader per copy rates than "controlled" magazines (publications sent automatically to people who match a certain profile). It is also why email house lists generate higher click rates than rented lists. The fact that you have taken the trouble to build interest and persuade someone to subscribe to your email communications virtually guarantees a better reception than if you simply barged into their inbox.

Obtaining permission requires two basic things:

1. Making yourself interesting enough for people to want to hear from you on a regular basis (Content Strategy), and
2. Using all your points of contact with prospects and customers in an integrated, cohesive way (Contact Strategy).

Content Strategy

What do you have to say to customers and prospects that would make them want to engage with you? Hint - it isn't the same message you stick in your advertising. We're talking about someone's personal email inbox, not a billboard on a highway. People receive a great range of communications here - quick notes from friends, reminders from colleagues, updates from their kids at college, even love letters. The one thing common to all of these is that they have meaning to that individual. To gain entry into this private place, your communications need meaning as well. Here are some simple rules:

• Start with a relational newsletter that is not explicitly about you or selling your products. Focus on being helpful instead, perhaps by examining trends in your industry or offering useful tips.

• Invite feedback by including mini surveys and other interactive opportunities. Your goal is to constantly enrich the profile information you have on each contact so you can send increasingly targeted and relevant content.

• Create separate areas for editorial and advertising, just like any newspaper or magazine. If you make meaningful editorial the priority, people will be more receptive to actual offers. An effective newsletter format is the 2/3 - 1/3 vertical split - editorial on one side, advertising on the other.

• Build - once you have this basic permission vehicle in place, build upon it by offering additional communications. These can be product alerts, dynamically personalized editions of the newsletter, tutorials, etc. You may be truly amazed at both your audience's appetite for useful information, and your ability to provide it.

With meaningful content to offer, the task is to coordinate all your points of contact with a single purpose - to constantly grow your house list and enrich the individual profiles in it. This means putting your content offer front and center everywhere - the Web site, print advertising, on your business cards, at trade shows, in contests, etc. We find it helpful to picture this as the Email Permission Hub (below). At the center is an online marketing database that is constantly fed and refreshed by these various channels.

Content and Contact Strategies are Inbox specialties and vital to most email marketers. For further information, please contact us anytime at 519-824-6664 or sales@inboxmarketer.com.