Do your customers have a Verizon email account? Pretty soon, it could be an AOL account…
Verizon has announced that they are closing down their email business to focus their energy on providing the best Internet, TV and phone experiences. AOL will take over active Verizon.net email addresses following on from their acquisition of Verizon in the middle of 2015.
They announced their email business has around 4.5 Million email accounts that will be affected within the next few weeks. It is estimated that approximately half are currently active (meaning the account has been used within the past 30 days). That equates to 2.3M being classed as ‘inactive’ (meaning the account has not been used within the last 30 days).
For many of our SmartFocus clients, the duration to be considered ‘inactive’ is generally much longer than 30+ days. This is a good example of how ISP(s) can view activity - and consequently inactivity - differently from brands. Therefore it is best for brands to align their definition of ‘activity’ with the ISPs as they ultimately control the flow of traffic to their subscribers.
To manage this retirement, Version has announced that it will not instantly deactivate each address but it will be providing it’s users three options:
- Transition to an AOL account(users will keep their Verizon.net email address but log in to access those emails through a AOL account)
- Transfer to another email provider
- Abandon their account which leads to deletion after a period of inactivity(those inactive Verizon.net email addresses will be deleted after 180 days of inactivity)
Verizon is keeping their email business updated via email, as well as an ‘Email service notice’ when a users logs in.
Do you have high volumes of Verizon customers within your subscriber base? If so there are pro-active tactics you can take to minimize the impact of this change and try to re-engage any subscribers with Verizon addresses that may have lapsed recently.
Firstly segment your Verizon subscriber base and email them a short marketing notification, making them aware of the change and to ensure it doesn’t disrupt the email communications they receive from you. This also acts of a way to ‘confirm their interest’ because if they open or click on the email, this acknowledges the email address as ‘active’ to yourself and Verizon. You can then continue to email this segment with a win-back email series to maintain a strong and updated Verizon segment.
For more information about the transition from Verizon, you can view the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page on their website –
https://www.verizon.com/support/residential/email/migrations.htm#change
If you are concerned about the impact of the Verizon change please contact your account manager about the benefits of a List Health review with our consulting team.