Issue 05
Nathan Gibson · about five minutes
Permission marketing means you write only to people who asked to hear from you. A newsletter subscriber is the plain case. They gave you an email and agreed to the next note. Everyone else did not, and they are not your list.
The ask comes before the message
You do not buy a list of addresses. You do not add someone because their email was sitting on a page. They opt in. A form they submit, a reply that says yes, or a box they tick is the record. If that record does not exist, the message is mail they did not request.
Ask in words they can understand. “Send me the next article” is a yes you can keep. A pre-checked box under a long form is a trick, and the person who feels tricked will not read the second note. Take the yes you can point to later.
Say what the note is
“I will email you when the next article is up” is a promise you can keep. “I will send you everything” is a promise you will break. Write the thing you named. If the note is about an invite, include the steps and say the company pays when a person qualifies.
Do not write that the money is certain. The company pays after its steps are finished. A subscriber who was told otherwise has a reason to leave, and they are right to leave.
They can take it back
A person who asked can stop asking. An unsubscribe link, or a reply that says stop, ends the permission. Another email after that is the same as writing to someone who never signed up. Remove them the day they say so.
A dead address is not a subscriber either. If the mail bounces, take it off. A list packed with people who left, and addresses that cannot receive mail, gets the later notes blocked for the people who still want them.
Permission is not filler
They asked for a specific note. Send that note when you have it. A quiet stretch with nothing new is better than a message that exists only so they see your name. When you do write, one subject is enough.
End with the single action you want, or with no action if the note was only an explanation. They gave you permission to write. They did not give you permission to pile on tasks.