House of Email Marketing

I attended Mediapost’s Email Insider Summit in Park City, Utah this past December. Being an avid, yet infrequent, skier I signed up to receive the “Daily Conditions” email from Deer Valley Ski Resort just outside of Park City. The first email I received on November 15th described a nearly snowless mountain with temperatures in the 50’s. When I arrived on December 6th they had about 20” of snow (due mostly to snow-making during cooler overnight temperatures) yet just 5 of 99 runs open for use. 5 runs was enough for me though! I love to ski in almost any condition, but mountain skiing is paradise. Plus, with daytime temps in the mid-30’s it seemed balmy to me and my thick, Minnesotan blood.

Though I left Utah on 12/10/08 I have continued to receive the daily email updates from Deer Valley and I relish looking each day as the snow continues to mount. It seems that the snow spigot started the day I left and several consecutive days went by when they received 2 – 8” of snow each day. Now they’re sitting with about 67” of snow and 97 of 99 runs open. Today’s email also said the high temperature will be about 40-degrees…again, practically tropical to me (it is -15 today in Minneapolis).

Even though I don’t know if I’ll make it back to Deer Valley anytime soon, just seeing these emails makes me giddy. I guess I should have been a ski bum. But then again, I’d rather eat regularly and live in a house then survive on ramen noodles and sleep in my car.

When does daily email make sense? It makes sense when it is what the user asks for and when it meets their needs. When doesn’t it make sense? Daily frequency without a subscriber’s specific opt-in to this frequency makes no sense at all. I’ve seen retailers kill their open and click metrics by over-mailing. Ultimately they destroy the trust of their subscribers in the process. To mail daily, you have to find the fanatics that get giddy when they hear from you, and let them raise their hand and ask for daily emails.

Even if it is next winter before I make it to Utah again, I will likely stay subscribed to the daily updates…and relish counting the inches of Utah powder I am missing out on.