EtherPad: Realtime Collaborative Text Editing. Clicktivism is ruining leftist activism | Micah White. A battle is raging for the soul of activism. It is a struggle between digital activists, who have adopted the logic of the marketplace, and those organisers who vehemently oppose the marketisation of social change. At stake is the possibility of an emancipatory revolution in our lifetimes. The conflict can be traced back to 1997 when a quirky Berkeley, California-based software company known for its iconic flying toaster screensaver was purchased for $13.8m (£8.8m). The sale financially liberated the founders, a left-leaning husband-and-wife team. He was a computer programmer, she a vice-president of marketing. And a year later they founded an online political organisation known as MoveOn. The trouble is that this model of activism uncritically embraces the ideology of marketing.
Clicktivists utilise sophisticated email marketing software that brags of its "extensive tracking" including "opens, clicks, actions, sign-ups, unsubscribes, bounces and referrals, in total and by source". Cyber-Monday Mystery: Where Are Missing Emails? Reports are getting louder that some - perhaps as many as one in four - email marketing messages sent on Cyber Monday were not delivered to recipients' inboxes. Nearly one-fourth of email marketing messages did not reach their intended destinations, according to new deliverability data released by Pivotal Veracity.
Though it has been dubbed the biggest online shopping day of the year, this past Monday saw inbox delivery rates plummet to a seven-day low of just 76.2%. There were several factors that hampered delivery, the company said. These started with the huge wave of offers and specials sent out by marketers. As delivery queues became packed, however, the ISP spam filters went on high alert and discarded a number of the messages, according to Deirdre Baird, Pivotal Veracity's president and CEO.
The Retail Email blog also believes marketing messages went astray this week. Traffic Still Huge The missing emails apparently didn't translate into curtailed sales or sites visits. What To Do? E-mail Marketing Special Report: Tips to Salvage an Unsubscribe. Only 1% of e-mail marketers send an automated welcome message to new subscribers, according to Listrak. This is a shame because welcome messages have the highest open rates of all email campaigns, Listrack says. (via MarketingCharts). Given that - and given the fact that a new subscriber is the most positive of all customer touchpoints there could be - it is not surprising that few marketers take advantage of another, more depressing customer touchpoint to reach out and communicate: when he or she unsubscribes.
Still, though, even at this point in the customer relationship it is worth doing one final outreach. Of course, it really could be that the customer wants nothing more to do with you or your services. It doesn't hurt to ask why - and to offer to send e-mails less frequently. First of all, says Carissa Newton, director of marketing for Delivra, honor the customer's request immediately. Be graceful. Then, make yourself available.