Rock ‘n’ Roll used to be music of the devil. Now those same Little Richard tracks from the ’50’s seem pretty tame compared to what we see on music television.
Seems that sins of the past can become mainstream. And I’ve noticed 3 “email sins” that have made the move to acceptable mainstream practices. Just like how Elvis’ gyrating hips went from national controversy to a moot point.
1) Free Mail With GMail
Recently I shared how using a Gmail address has become mainstream, even for professionals. It used to be using anything but xxxx@yourdomain.com was taboo. And while Hotmail and Yahoo! domains are still generally seen as amateur, GMail has crossed over to the mainstream simply because their inbox is THAT good.
2) Asking for email address only.
For probably more than a decade asking for both name and email in opt-in forms was standard. This allowed you to do “amazing” things like personalizing emails and sales pages.
But more recently word has spread that marketers are universally increasing conversions by asking for email only… I haven’t heard even one test to the contrary.
3) The death of double opt-in.
It used to be that when someone gave you permission to send them emails, that you did indeed have their permission. But the rise of spam and worry over deliverability rates led most autoresponder services to make Double Opt-in mandatory.
Double opt-in means the visitor has to submit their email address, then check their email and finally click a link to confirm that they did, indeed, give you permission to email them.
This of course drastically cut down in the number of new subscribers marketers were receiving. But finally it appears that companies are changing their minds again.
Many marketers are switching back to single opt-in and large autorepsonder services are making it double opt-in optional once again. This is good news for honest email marketers.
Overall, I love all 3 of these new developments in email. Although not quite as much as 50’s rock ‘n’ roll.
