Principle 3. Offer a range of opt-in incentives. Many web sites now have ‘free-win-save’
incentives to encourage opt-in, but often it is one incentive fits all visitors. Different
incentives for different audiences will generate a higher volume of permission, partic-
ularly for business-to-business web sites. We can also gauge the characteristics of the
respondent by the type of incentives or communications they have requested, with-
out the need to ask them.
Principle 4. ‘Don’t make opt-out too easy.’ Often marketers make it too easy to unsub-
scribe. Although offering some form of opt-out is now a legal requirement in many
countries due to privacy laws, a single click to unsubscribe is making it too easy.
Instead, wise e-permission marketers such as Amazon use the concept of ‘My Profile’
or a ‘selective opt-out’. Instead of unsubscribe, they offer a link to a ‘communications
preferences’ web form to update a profile, which includes the options to reduce com-
munications which may be the option taken rather than unsubscribing completely.
Principle 5. ‘Watch, don’t ask.’ The need to ask interruptive questions can be reduced
through the use of monitoring clicks to better understand customer needs and to trig-
ger follow-up communications. Some examples:- Monitoring clickthrough to different types of content or offer.
- Monitoring the engagement of individual customers with e-mail communications.
- Follow-up reminder to those who don’t open the e-mail first time.
Principle 6. Create an outbound contact strategy. Online permission marketers need a
plan for the number, frequency and type of online and offline communications and
offers. This is a contact or touch strategywhich is particularly important for large organ-
isations with several marketers responsible for e-mail communications. The contact
strategy should indicate the following. (1) Frequency (e.g. minimum once per quarter
and maximum once per month). (2) Interval (e.g. there must be a gap of at least one
week or one month between communications). (3) Content and offers (we may want to
limit or achieve a certain number of prize draws or information-led offers). (4) Links
between online communications and offline communications. (5) A control strategy (a
mechanism to make sure these guidelines are adhered to, for example using a single
‘focal point’ for checking all communications before creation dispatch).
Examples of contact strategies for Euroffice and Tesco.com were discussed in Chapter 4.
Personalisation and mass customisation
The potential power of personalisationis suggested by these quotes from Evans et al.
(2000) that show the negative effects of lack of targeting of traditional direct mail:‘Don’t like unsolicited mail ... haven’t asked for it and I’m not interested.’
(Female, 25–34)
‘Most isn’t wanted, it’s not relevant and just clutters up the table ... you have to sort
through it to get to the “real mail”.’
(Male, 45–54)‘It’s annoying to be sent things that you are not interested in. Even more annoying when
they phone you up. ... If you wanted something you would go and find out about it.’
(Female, 45–54)Personalisation and mass customisationcan be used to tailor information content on
a web site and opt-in e-mail can be used to deliver it to add value and at the same time
remind the customer about a product. ‘Personalisation’ and ‘mass customisation’ are
terms that are often used interchangeably. In the strict sense, personalisation refers toCHAPTER 6· RELATIONSHIP MARKETING USING THE INTERNET
Contact or touch
strategy
Definition of the
sequence and type of
outbound
communications
required at different
points in the customer
lifecycle.
Personalisation
Web-based
personalisation
involves delivering
customised content for
the individual, through
web pages, e-mail or
push technology.
Mass customisation
Mass customisation is
the creation of tailored
marketing messages or
products for individual
customers or groups of
customers typically
using technology to
retain the economies of
scale and the capacity
of mass marketing or
production.