Email Subscribers Want More Control

The broad survey found that subscribers are still interested in receiving email offers and e-newsletters, which is surprising considering the continual drop in email open rates, but in exchange, subscribers want control over what they receive from senders and when they receive it.

The Internet has become more of a participatory medium, and email users are expecting more and demanding control over what fills their inboxes. Email users continue to have more than a dozen email subscriptions on average, but they are requiring much more control over the content, frequency & timing, interactivity and format of the messages they receive. No longer is a sign up for our list sufficient for email updates, e-zines or e-newsletters. Subscribers want to know what they are going to get, how it is going to improve their dialogue and experience with the sending company, and that the company cares about them as an individual prospect, customer or partner.

Additional findings from the survey support that change is afoot in email communications:

The average email subscriber acknowledges that he or she is subscribed to nearly 14 email marketing lists or e-newsletters, with about a 50/50 split between business and personal interests.

Only 26% of people are satisfied with the interaction options (such as reply, rate, remind or forward) available to them in the email list messages they receive. Less than 40% of people are satisfied with the timing and frequency of those messages. When messages do not meet subscribers expectations, more subscribers ignore future messages (58%) than unsubscribe from the list (55%), which may explain the high level of inactivity among most marketers list subscribers.

As expected, 2/3 of respondents said that in general they were unwilling to provide any personal information at sign up beyond a name and email address. However, if they believed that the personal information would improve the personalization, relevance and timeliness of their emails, nearly 70% said they would be willing to provide more information during sign up. 85% of respondents said they would view control over content and timing of messages as appealing, and nearly 80% said they would answer a few more questions at sign up to ensure more control.

Respondents sought information and news from senders about specific products and services that they owned (64%); tips and advice (60%); and specific offers for subscribers only (79%).

In response to the opportunity for more control, subscribers asked that sending companies give more explanation to them about their control options over what content they will get and when they will get it (74%); an example email with the personalization and control (70%); and a summary of the companys privacy practices (50%).

A subscribers attention is more and more strained by the deluge of daily emails he or she receives. Messages that are unexpected, irrelevant and unclear do damage to the companies that send them, and miss tremendous opportunities to build and extend customer, prospect or partner relationships. Smart organizations are realizing the real value of email is in increasing dialogues between an organization and its constituents. Revolutionary technology platforms enable dynamic personalization of corporate e-communications by leveraging a companys knowledge and content, and individually packaging it to reflect the unique qualities of each recipient.

100% relevant communications to each recipient of each message from a system create a new standard, from the initial confirmation message through the duration of the relationship. By fostering balance and shared control, companies and their customers, prospects, partners, and employees develop stronger, better-informed relationships.

Carey Ransom is the co-founder of Truverse. Founded in 2004, Truverse is a rapidly growing, Seattle-based communications software company. Truverse is privately funded, and managed by experienced, entrepreneurial software executives, whose passion is delivering simple, effective communications that improve relationships and decrease internal administrative costs through automation. Visit Truverse at http://www.Truverse.com

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