With an increasing amount of e-mails sent, ever more e-mail clients, the need to focus on relevant content to avoid unsubscribes (and get your mails delivered) and changing communication and interaction rules, deliverability remains an issue for e-mail marketers.

Many e-mails from businesses, even highly targeted marketing e-mails, do not even get opened. They get binned, marked as spam (often unnecessarily), or archived right from the get-go, and never see the light of day.

Many recipients just do not have the time to browse through all their e-mails and, as you know, there are more interaction channels such as social media.

It’s obvious that in order to get people opening and scanning your e-mails, your e-mails have to reach the inbox first. And permission still seems rule number one here. Without proper, honest and relevant sign-up processes, based on the recipient's permission, there is no e-mail marketing.

Permission is not the first step in e-mail relationships

However, permission is just an – be it important – act by someone who wants to receive your e-mails. It is not the first step in establishing an e-mail relationship.

The days of broadcasting are over, we should look at email marketing as a dialogue between people: us, the marketers and businesses, and the recipients, those real people behind the e-mail addresses in our lists.

Permission should be earned every day, long after the sign-up for your e-mails. Because people want to receive our e-mails for a reason.

As e-mail marketers it’s our job to know and understand these reasons and do everything we can to deliver what people need and want.

Think visitor-, customer- and recipient-centric. Always keep your (future) subscribers in mind. That is the real rule number one. It even precedes permission. Because without it, people simple will not subscribe.

People start considering to give us their communication permission in every single contact they have with us and the relevance we offer, anywhere, anytime.

So permission should not only be earned long after the sign-up but also before it. And of course during the communication relationship. Every day. And across all channels, even if it requires to change interaction channels.

J-P De Clerck is a content, conversion and social media consultant. You can connect with him on Twitter or via his site.