Do your leads think you're a spammer?

As an extension to my post, Is Drip Marketing for You?, I thought this week's chart from Marketing Sherpa added a very important consideration to the discussion.

It cannot be emphasized enough that your content has to be relevant, or it's not going to catch or keep attention. What you may not realize is that your drip marketing recipients don't give one whit about the ramifications for you if they hit the spam button.

But, you need to care. You need to care a lot. Spam buttons are worse than Delete buttons.

Although both indicate a lack of interest from your leads, the difference between them is that clicking the spam button will impact your "sender" reputation with the gatekeepers and ISPs who allow your messages to get to their destination.

This chart from Marketing Sherpa should get your attention:

Those top two items are very concerning. Plus, they're both things you should have control over. This chart should reinforce the fact that the batch-and-blast method has died and should be put to rest.

Let's take a look at those top two responses on the chart.

52% don't remember opting in - or they didn't. If you're buying lists and going with the "let them opt out" theory, then you are spamming them and deserve the hit. If you need to get your message to a list, then have it included in a message from a sender the lead is expecting to hear from. A newsletter from a trusted source is a good choice.

The other possibility is that you never showed them a confirmation page, you didn't send them a welcome email and it's been longer than a week or so before they received a communication from you. Attention is fleeting.

41% say email received not of interest. This means you missed your mark. Your message had no relevance to them - none. How much more obvious can it be that you need to do your homework, get to know your leads and segment them based on interests? The need for extending the effort to understand and embrace your lead's perspective could not be more obvious. Relevance is no longer a "nice to have" but a MUST HAVE requirement for your drip marketing campaigns.

If you want some further insight about how to increase your relevance, start with my (free) eBook, Catch Me, If You Can. Those 5 catch factors can really help you avoid that spam button.

For your reading enjoyment, here's my riff about unsubscribe processes.

I've noticed that unsubscribe processes are becoming more convoluted. It's no longer one click and you're done. Now you have to remember your login information to go and "update" your profile and deselect the lists you've supposedly opted in for. Then they want to send you a confirmation email you need to click on to complete the process. And in the middle of all of that, they add more reasons trying to get you to change your mind and stay on their list.

If people stay at that point it's either because they've become so confused that they can't figure out how to opt out or they actually think they have, but they missed a step. Or, they get so disgusted that they wait until your next message and hit the spam button. Well, you deserved it.

Oh, and my favorite. "Your request has been received and you will be removed from our database in 10 days." WTF? And then they put you on an accelerated send plan for those 10 days. Enough said.

Spam buttons are ONE click.

Instead of hiding the unsubscribe, consider making it bigger, more obvious, and a one-click option-and say so. Why in the world would you want to waste your time - and eventually your salesperson's time - on a lead who doesn't consider your content interesting enough to continue reading? It's unlikely that all of a sudden your content will become riveting. Or maybe you're trying to hold on to that volume number...

People buy from people they trust - and people they like. Usually those are the people who add value and are relevant to them, as well.