RESOURCES · E-NEWSLETTERS · THINK · NOVEMBER 2006

EMAIL MARKETING IS ALL GROWN UP NOW

Sophisticated email marketing may be a relatively new addition to the marketing toolbox, but it's quickly proven to be one of the most valuable. There are amazing success stories from companies who are working the technology to the max and seeing unprecedented results. With the proper perspective and some good old fashioned planning, you can enjoy such success (and you might know more than you think you do).

In the past, email marketing rarely benefited from the strategic expertise developed in the traditional direct marketing industry. That was then. THIS is now. Present-day email campaign strategies employ many traditional direct marketing techniques, with marked success.

Successful direct marketing campaigns rely on a well-crafted mix of target audience research, list building, segmentation, personalization, design best practices, tagging/tracking and test/response techniques. These same elements are critical in email marketing and, in many cases, the same techniques for developing them are equally effective. The differentiating factors are speed, traceability and cost.

Traditional direct mail efforts have evolved considerably over the years, incorporating tracking mechanisms like unique codes and/or URLs, but it still may take several weeks to a month before results can be assessed. An email campaign can be tested, modified and deployed within 48 hours (sometimes less). Further list building, segmentation and personalization can happen on-the-fly or, in some cases, can be automated, triggered by the recipient's action or response to the email. These factors alone translate into cost savings, but more evident still are the hard costs, a fraction of their postal counterparts. By no means does that render traditional direct marketing obsolete. On the contrary, well-planned multi-channel marketing efforts can leverage email marketing cost savings to increase the flexibility of offline efforts.

Successful email campaigns typically employ segmentation, personalization, qualified lists with single or double opt-in and timing/frequency techniques to maximize results.

An Example

Client X, a franchisee based business, currently collects email addresses from visitors to its website and subscribers of its service. Client X uses the email addresses to send "batch and blast" emails to its list whenever it has important information to share with its subscribers. Emails are created and sent by various people in the organization on a sporadic basis. Although Client X is accomplishing their goal to touch its customers monthly, it has not taken the time to segment its customer base, personalize the communication or to employ a method to measure the value or effectiveness of the communication. Nor is it able to maintain the company brand or to ensure the consistency and professional image it wants to convey.

What could the company be doing? Email marketing best practices indicate it should employ a data capture method on the website and/or through the subscription process that allows customers to provide information about their interests, location, size of business, etc. This information can be used to create personalized, relevant content that will be sent to subscribers on a systematic schedule. The email could primarily contain content created by the corporate office that is useful and relevant to all audiences, but could also contain information that is geographically or individually relevant to subscribers based on the preferences they selected during the subscription process. The end result: communication that is customized and feels like it was generated locally, but maintains the company brand and keeps the messages consistent with the level of professionalism the corporate office wants to convey.

What kind of results can Client X expect? If done right, statistics indicate it could experience 70% open rates and 25% click through rates. In addition, it can expect to improve customer loyalty, establish its credibility as experts in its field and solidify its brand in the minds of its customers.

The Bottom Line

"Batch and blast" email strategies can be economical and will work to a certain point. However, a solid plan of action, employing segmentation, personalization, qualified lists, design best practice techniques and the commitment to respond rapidly to analytics is crucial in achieving results that exceed your expectations.

Given the skepticism that surrounds emails, you might be wondering if spending your time and money on an email campaign is the best use of your marketing dollars. However, when you consider that when a campaign is properly structured you can expect to get up to 70% open rates and up to 25% click through rates, it does make economic sense.

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