Most Dangerous Job in Marketing: Firing Dormant Subscribers Hurts but Necessary
Figure1: Bronto Software's "Love 'Em, Leave 'Em & Move on" white paper has the best title yet for a B2B digital marketing white paper and mostly delivers the loving. Screenshot by Derek Handova
As soon as I saw the title of Bronto Softwareâs white paper on email marketing engagement, I had to smile broadly. Thereâs something about âLove âEm, Leave âEm & Move onâ that struck a nerve. Maybe funny bone is a better way of framing it. Frankly, itâs the best title Iâve ever seen in a B2B white paper. But beyond the attention-grabbing headline, there lay brutally honest steps to try to salvage the ârelationshipâ with your email customer, failing that a way to say goodbye gracefully and getting ready to cultivate the next set of customers.
Figure 2: When you first engage with an email subscriber there's an adrenaline rush that makes you want to run in fields of gold. But is it a love that will last or simple infatuation? Photo credit: Micah Camara / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
When youâre looking to gain a new email customer, thereâs an initial rush of excitement when it actually happens. However she has happened to land on your web site and registered all her details for your regular mail campaign and special one-off offers, it got your adrenaline pumping and pulse racing. But something has happened since then. The ardor has cooled. Sheâs tailed off clicking through. Some of your emails even go unopened. Face it; sheâs just not that into you anymore! Donât despair, though. Bronto has a strategy for your direct marketing effort to give it one last college try by:
Figuring out why email subscribers loved you at the beginning and renewing that love
Failing renewal of love giving them an ultimatum and some time to comply
Forgetting spurned love, forging ahead and cutting former email flames from your database
Figure 3: Bronto Software's "Love 'Em, Leave 'Em & Move on" email white paper boils down to sending messages that customers/lovers want to read. Photo credit: planeta / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)Â
Loving Them To begin with, Bronto says you need to know how you came together at the start. Has this happened to you before? Are you repeating past mistakes and self-sabotaging your relationship? She who does not know her own history is doomed to repeat it. According to Bronto, there are generally four conceptual ways how you couldâve âmetâ your subscribers:
In your neighborhood (i.e., your web site)
Through a friend of a friend (i.e., social networking)
Speed dating (e.g., sweepstakes enticement)
At the club (i.e., in-store/Point-of-Sale signup)
Each of these relationship origins has its own dynamics and follows a different decay rate. Meeting subscribers in your neighborhood is the basis of a strong relationship as she made the first move to come onto you. Meeting subscribers through social networking is more of a second chance where her friend saw something in you, and she chose to take a look herself and after experiencing off-the-bat chemistry  later decided that it was only infatuation. Whereas subscribers who only joined your mailing list because of a spiff like a sweepstakes could just be players out to get what they can from youâwham, bam, thank you maâam! And as at a real club where you've collected your fair share of 555 prefix numbers, subscribers that sign up for your mailing list at the store cashier couldâve given out a bogus address.
Figure 4: According to Bronto, each different type of email relationship has a different decay rate based on its acquisition technique. Screenshot by Derek Handova
Figure 4 shows Brontoâs example relationship decay rates for each meeting type. You can combat email marketing relationship decay rates by:
*Â Â After determining that there is a subscriber relationship problem, trying to subtly fix it by schmoozing the divas via steps such as,
Using banner ads in emails to coax profile updating for a special offer
Validating them by confirmation of their updates
Doing the unexpected in your subject lines such as employing emoticons
Adding an extra-added bonus on top of a substantial discount like free shipping
*Â Â Talking it out by,
Making an emotional statement including, âWe miss you,â âHavenât seen you lately,â âDid we do something wrong?â
Offering expert advice in the your companyâs field
Improving her user experience
Binding the customer with standing loyalty programs, lifetime gratis shipments and bonding her to your community base
Leaving Them If none of the foregoing tactics has made things better with your subscriber and rekindled her love, you need to escalate things. Send her an ultimatum! But give her some time. Donât tell her precisely how much time or that you will take her back in a heartbeat. You may be a fool in love, but youâre no schmuck! However, you must be ready for the potential blowback on this âmy way or the highwayâ tactic and be prepared to kiss your subscriber goodbye!
Lay it on the line. Tell her you are tired of all her foolish games and to stop wasting all your precious time. Is she in, or is she out? The truth will do just fine. If she doesnât respond to your future email communications, youâre through. No more sappy sentimentality. Just straightforward emotional blackmail. Sheâs a woman; sheâll understand this approach.
In any event, your nextâand perhaps finalâemail to your erstwhile love interest should contain an explicit Call-to-Action link cajoling her to confirm her interest in continuing to receive emails. Failure to click will lead to termination. You may want to make an offer of a discount or another value-add for relationships based in your neighborhood or on friends of friendsâthe players and clubbers just arenât worth it, reallyâas one last lifeline to her.
Moving On Cut bait or go fish. Even as you have culled your neglectful email subscribers out of your contact databaseâs life, you can still profit from this exercise. Segment these former subscribers based on their demographics, point of entry and interaction history. Once you have a profile of your exes, you will be better able to judge future Ms Perfects. Maybe there is a way to anticipate trouble earlier in your relationships and head it off. But best of all youâll know a femme fatale at first sight now. If any of these ingĂ©nues darken your doorstep in the days to come, youâll know to run and not walk away from them. And while you are at it, ban your ex-subscribers from re-engaging with your email list. Who needs âem?! Donât think you are alone in this. Bronto can help you automate your email marketing relationships. If only they could do this for our real relationships.
Analogy run amok but in the Running As much as I like Brontoâs headline and overall content of âLove âEm, Leave âEm & Move on,â itâs a bit too cuteâby half. The relationship analogy is just too laborious, and I felt myself rolling my eyes like Mitchell Pritchett on âModern Familyâ and lowly groaning at the bad puns, some of which may not be intentional.
Nonetheless, Bronto offers an entertaining take and some useful insights on email marketing relationship sustainment. Itâs somewhat top-heavy on the âlove âemâ advice and tails off âleaving âemâ & âmoving on.â But thatâs only right as you should be trying to salvage your relationship with your email subscribers and only spurning them if all else fails.
Iâd recommend this white paper primarily for B2C marketers, but if youâre a high-volume B2B purveyor, you may also find interesting information within. See the whole piece for yourself (registration required).
-Derek Handova Social Media Practitioner


















