• by Kara Trivunovic , Op-Ed Contributor, September 1, 2011

In July, my family celebrated the Serbian Orthodox holiday Slava. As we prepared for dinner, the priest came to our house and blessed the food and our home. The preparation for his arrival typically includes a candle, red wine, a list of residents in the house and the traditional bread that my mother-in-law makes and decorates. This year, as I handed him all the "tools," he asked for one more thing" my email address. Wait? What? Why? Feeling put on the spot and not entirely sure I could really say "no," I obliged.

 As you look at your acquisition practices, are you putting your subscribers on the spot to provide their permission? Making someone feel forced into subscribing to your email communications isn't necessarily the best way to grow an engaged and responsive email list. It is a fine practice for adding a quantity of email subscribers to your database, but the quality may be lacking. Really think about how you are gathering email subscriptions and ask yourself the following questions:

Is there an obvious value proposition for subscribing? Customers need to see value in their interactions with your brand in order to continue engaging with it over the long term. This need extends itself to your email program as well. What benefit will they receive by subscribing to your email communications -- and do you make those benefits apparent at the point of data collection?

Is email collection a barrier to engaging elsewhere? If you require customers to provide their email address and permission in exchange for something else (like access to content -- or, in my case, the fear of eternal damnation), then you have to consider the motivation behind the subscription. Did you bribe it out of them, or was it willingly and honestly granted?

Are you delivering on expectations? Getting the email address is only the first step in this process; actually delivering content the recipient wants and expects is where the real work begins. Retaining those email subscribers needs to be the focus; delivering timely and relevant messaging is imperative for that long-term success.

Here's the real question. I am now receiving five to nine email messages a week from my priest (covering everything from church services to deaths in the congregation and everything in between); if I choose to "'Unsubscribe," is that paramount to clicking a button that says, "Send me straight to hell"? I somehow doubt it -- but I have chosen to not find out. You may not be as lucky, though. Unless you've put the fear of God in your forced email subscribers, they are likely more prone to click "Unsubscribe."