Responsible, and effective email marketing is based on the idea of permission.

Basically, you need to have the email address owner’s permission before you can send them any marketing emails. If you don’t have this permission, the email recipient will most likely consider the message as spam.

You do not want to send spam, or even be perceived as sending spam.

If you are accused of sending spam, then you may find your email accounts closed down, your website shut off, and your reputation ruined. In some parts of the world, you may even be breaking the law.

Aside from these practical considerations, there is also the line of reasoning that any long-term successful email marketing will only work if it is permission based

The big question, of course, is what constitutes permission. And who decides if an email is spam or not.

What is permission.

Permission is simply when some one gives you expressed permission for you to send them emails. Nothing less will do.

It is important to know that it is not the sender who decides if an email is spam, and it is not the sender who decides whether or not the email is requested or not. It is the person receiving the email that decides to give permission, and who decided if an email is spam or not.

Perception is reality. If a person regards your email as spam, then to them it is spam, will be ignored, and quite possibly report the message as spam to their email provider.

How to get permission.

If your business is online with a website, then you can include what is called an ‘opt-in form’. This is a little form where some one can enter their name and email address, and ‘sign up’ for your emails. This is them giving you permission to send them emails.

Another way to get permission is to actually ask them. If you have a brick and mortar business, when the customer is in your store and is paying for their purchases, simply asking them if they’d like to be added to your email list will work. If they agree that constitutes permission to send them emails.

When asking, it is best to mention the benefits of joining your email list. That could be monthly newsletters, notices of special sales, email only coupons, and the like. It is important to make being on your email list attractive and advantageous to your customers.

Now that they are on your list, and given you permission to send emails, you can start building a relationship with them that will keep them returning to your business over and over again.