Oscar Wilde once said that most of us suggest we adhere to our morals and ethics, but when tempted, we struggle, and fail, to conform. The Liar’s Paradox. He said it more succinctly, in six words, but that’s like him; he was too clever by half. 

You might wonder what one of the greatest playwrights in the English language has to do with email marketing, and the answer is very little practically, but his ‘I can resist anything but temptation’ is apposite for us. Post Coronavirus, things are going to be tough. It will be tempting to cut corners, to speed up acquisition and concentrate solely on numbers of subscribers. 

The total of your email marketing list is an easy measure of progress. How reassuring would it be to double the monthly take-up just when others are struggling? However, now is not the time to turn rogue. 

You have, probably, built your own list organically. You’ve honed your methods over the months and years, and know when you’ve done well because the dependable figures bear this out. You should feel proud of your achievements. Risking your funds by buying risky email marketing lists is as much a waste as before, probably more so now because money is tight. 

You might go through your systems to see if there’s any fat you can trim. You know you should have done it sooner, but you didn’t have the time. Not something you can use as an excuse now. When checking the sign-up process you will see the double opt-in which you know means that some who go through the first part fail to do so in the second. You even know the exact number of failures.

Don’t change it. It’s there for a good reason. It’s spring, time to clean your lists, getting rid of bounces, unsubscribes, those you could not reactivate and the few who’ve given you grief re complaints. And don’t hide the unsubscribe button.

Our systems have proved themselves over time. Trading conditions post-Coronavirus are going to make these processes essential and not an option. It’s not a paradox; it’s patently true.