“That’s our business model!”

On the seventh day of Listmas, my client said to me “That’s our business model!”

Everyone thinks that they have the next disruptive business model. “What we’ve come up with will change how you ________________.” If only, you know, if only that everyone knew about the business and how disruptive it is.

Some people in my line of work generally set aside the first few minutes of a call for the “Explanation of the Business Model.” It’s like starting a church service with a greeting. You know it’s coming and about all that you can do is prepare yourself for your role in it. It’s going to happen whether you want it to or not.

Over the years, I have heard a lot of business models. And, well, they’re never quite as unique as the person describing them thinks that they are. But, here’s the secret to all of this when it comes to sending email: None of it matters. Email works the same whether your business model is old and musty or new and fresh. The people who run the mail servers that are receiving your messages don’t care about your business model. They only care about what their users (your recipients) are telling them about your messages, or what they’re seeing in their network of spamtraps.

It’s pretty rare to find a business model that’s disruptive to email, and that’s ultimately the only topic worth discussing when it comes to how messages get delivered.

“We’ve gotta make our numbers,”
5 SBLs,
4 authentication failures,
sending 3 times daily,
2 purchased lists,
and that’s why they’re having slow delivery.