There, I said it.  And I’ll say it again: triggered email is only as good as your data.  I know, I know…now I have to back that claim up.

If you’re sending triggered emails in response to one-time events (for example, welcome emails, website confirmation downloads, etc.) then chances are your data is pretty good.  Someone does “something” (subscribes, purchases, downloads, etc.) and you trigger an email in response to whatever that something may be.   

These are often the most easy-to-implement triggered messages, which is why so many marketers have started to not only use, but optimize them.  Like many of you, we here at ExactTarget have made leaps and bounds in our triggered emails over the past year, including:

• Defining what the “somethings” that result in a trigger are
• Capture those “somethings” and feeding the data into our CRM database of records
• Triggering an email out of ExactTarget using our triggered email interactions
• Tracking the holistic performance of the triggered emails
• Making adjustments on the fly (without involving our web developer, which makes him very happy) for maximum performance.

Typing the list above makes it seem easy.  Get the data, then trigger an email.  We’d like for all our email messages to be sent using the process above.  But what about the following, more complicated, scenarios? 

• The “something” event is comprised of multiple data points
• The data lives in multiple systems
• Your data isn’t clean

Not so easy.  At least, not for us (and I’m guessing that means not for you, either).  Take, for example, a satisfaction survey we’d like to send 90 days before a customer is due to renew their contract with us, followed by a reminder email if they haven’t yet completed it, or a thank you email if they have.

In theory, this would be an easy series to trigger:  Send #1 = Renewal date – 90 days.  Send #2 = Triggered thank you upon completion OR reminder email 7 days after survey invite sent. But…

• We have multiple (sometimes hundreds) subscribers stored per account in our CRM system.  Not all contacts should receive the message.
• The data about what is due to renew / when it is due to renew is stored in a separate area of our CRM system, with no easy way to tie a subscriber to the renewal opportunity.
• Because we don’t delete data from our CRM system, the subscriber may no longer work at the company.  This information is often manually typed in to a data field (i.e. “Patricia NO LONGER THERE.”)  Look familiar?
• The extensive survey is hosted by a third-part vendor, which means there is no real-time visibility into whether someone has completed the survey within our own system.

The list goes on, but suffice it to say that there is a lot of manual data cleaning that goes into pulling a satisfaction survey list and sending the series.  So while this seems like an ideal campaign to trigger, it’s just not easy.  And I’m guessing that we’re not alone in this challenge.

While I don’t have a solution to the overall data issues that impede implementing more triggered / automated emails, I can tell you this – understanding what data is needed, where it lives, and what obstacles stand in the way of easily getting that is a huge first step in the right direction.  As the old saying goes, not knowing is half the battle.  So if you’re looking to automate or optimize your triggered email marketing and have found yourself in a similar situation, understanding your data is a good place to start.

Cheers,

Ashley Sales
Manager, Marketing Communications

Having multiple databases for subscriber information can be cumbersome when attempting to keep all your data up-to-date. Keeping lists clean and current is a common reason clients use the ExactTarget API.  Our API lets you update individual subscribers on a particular list, or you can update an entire list by using the API to kick off an import.

If it is a small set of subscribers that are being updated, the “single subscriber adds” or “subscriber edit calls” would suit you. This would allow you to update subscriber attribute values or even update subscriber’s status to unsubscribe. 

If you have a larger set of subscribers (as many of you do!) using a batch import would be the best option.  You can FTP the .csv or .txt file to the ExactTarget FTP location, and then use an API call to tell ExactTarget to import that file name into a particular list id.  You can also indicate the import type just as you can through the user interface: add and update new and existing subscribers, add only new subscribers, or update only existing subscribers.

Alternately, you can use the ExactTarget API to pull subscriber lists back in an XML format.  When pulling back a list of subscriber, the API lets you return all subscribers on that list, or to filter based on status.  For example, you can pull subscribers in an Unsubscribed, Undeliverable, Held, or Unsubscribed status, which is helpful if you have a different (or multiple) subscriber databases.  Pulling your subscriber lists out of our application means you can take advantage of ExactTarget’s powerful subscriber management tool and propagate that data across all databases for email marketing.  By automating these pushes and pulls to run daily (or weekly depending on email frequency) it will reduce the time needed to manually update your subscriber lists and help you stay Can-SPAM compliant.

No matter where your data is, the ExactTarget API can help you build, maintain and clean your subscriber lists.  And at the end of the day, that means you’re well on your way to building a better list.

Jessica Koch
Integration Consultant

If my inbox is any indication, list growth was a common goal set for this year.  In the past week, I have been asked for information on email appends and other list growth tactics by several clients a day.

Most email append providers offer what we call an "opt-out" email append service.  The process looks something like this:

1) Client provides a file containing street addresses of customers or prospects that is matched against a database. Where a match to the client's list is found, the email address is appended to the record.

2) An email is then sent to the individuals on the newly created list with the option to opt out. (Interestingly, many email append companies advertise the low number of opt-outs that are received... but more on that in a minute)

3) After allowing some time for people to opt-out (typically a week), two files are returned to the customer. The first file is a list of successfully appended and delivered emails. The second is a list of opt-out emails to be used for suppression.

Cost

We have worked with several third parties on email append projects with clients. Pricing is competitive in this industry with rates from reputable email append providers starting around $0.50 per appended email address with significant discounts based on volume. Pay attention, since there are hundreds of companies that advertise significantly lower rates. If someone quotes you rates starting at $0.05, or even $0.10, per email append... RUN!

Issues with Opt-out Append

1) Those low opt-out rates are not a good thing.

One prominent player in the email append space advertises, "Less than one-fourth of one percent choose to opt out." No one should be impressed by this since opt-out rates are always low.  The industry wide average opt-out rate is about one-tenth of one percent. So, quoting one-fourth of one percent suggests that their average opt-out rate is 2.5 times higher than the industry averages.  Not good!

2) Quantity, not quality.

The opt-out approach to email appends provides no incentives for the email append provider to ensure that the names will be responsive. They get paid by the address they provide back to you, regardless of whether or not the address is responsive. While reputable providers do have an interest in repeat business and referrals, which is some incentive, the fact still remains that you pay for the email addresses you receive back at the end of this process. The only requirements are that the email address is deliverable and they did not opt-out to a single email sent to them as part of the process.  These are embarassingly low thresholds. In my experience, addresses acquired through opt-out append are less responsive than new registrants from other sources. At least part of this can be attributed to “recipient dilution”, which you can read more about in Al’s recent post. At the end of the day, you just end up paying for a lot of deadweight.

3) "Opt-out" is not permission.

Why is this important? Because lists that are not permission-based result in higher unsubscribe rates, higher percentage of people clicking this "This is SPAM" button, and lower open, click-through, and conversion rates. These factors lead to problems with your online reputation, and thus, your ability to get your email delivered. Just because someone does not unsubscribe or report you as SPAM the first time you send an email to them (as part of the opt-out append process) is no indication that they will not do so later. The best predictor of someone reporting you as SPAM is the level of permission you obtained when they were added to your list. "Opt-out" lists, while legal under CAN-SPAM, do not meet the demands of most ISPs receiving your email, significantly increase the likelihood that your email will be blocked, and make it much more difficult to get your email unblocked.

"But all the email addresses are 'double opt-in'!" is a common protest when we bring up this point. Well, yes... maybe at some time they double opted-in for something. But, they never opted-in to anything for you! Permission in marketing is non-transferable.

For that reason, ExactTarget is a permission-based ESP. All ExactTarget clients sign an agreement agreeing that the lists they provide are permission-based and are not permitted to send to opt-out lists using our system.

4) Opt-out append leaves a negative impression with some recipients. 

I have yet to find a way to measure the financial impact of the negative impression that is left in the minds of unwilling recipients of appended emails, but there is no question that there is a dark side. Forrester provides excellent insights based on a survey they conducted in August 2004. "Nearly 50% of likely email subscribers wouldn't mind and would read appended emails from a cataloger. However, appended email blatantly offends between 25% to 39% of consumers, depending on the type of business sending it. And it has hidden risks. About 20% of consumers say that even though they read appended emails, they find them annoying. Another 12% say that although they don't unsubscribe, appended emails annoy them."

5) Results are spotty at best.

MarketingShepra's 2007 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide indicates that of marketers who have tried email appends, more than half said it either didn't work or it wasn't worth the effort.

Part II coming soon... email appends done right!

Hats off to ExactTarget agency partner, Customer Portfolios for the terrific work they are doing to help Dunkin’ Donuts roll out its new Dunkin’ Perks™ customer loyalty program.

As reported by Amy Johannes in the January 23rd online


As reported by Amy Johannes in the January 23rd online edition of PROMO P&I, Dunkin’ Donuts will use permission-based email to keep customers enthused, engaged, and most importantly . . .  coming back to its stores and its website to take advantage of special offers.

In the article, Joahannes notes that customers who opt-in for the Dunkin’ Perks program will receive e-mails twice a month with product news, store locations and special in-store and online offers. Members get offers throughout the year specific to their local market.

David Tryder, Dunkin’ Donuts manager of interactive and relationship marketing said, “We want to continue building relationships with our customers by sending them targeted communications and offers.”

Localized Promotion

One of the things I like about this program is that many of the promotions Dunkin’ Donuts sends will be specific to the Dunkin’ Perks™ member’s geographic location. I think franchise owners will love this! As I am reminded when I click on the “Perks FAQs” menu item (See My Perks Profile page below), “It's the easiest way for Dunkin' Lovers to keep up to date with everything happening at Dunkin'.”

 

And just in case a consumer needs help finding a Dunkin’ Donuts store where they can get their DD fix, a handy store locator makes it easy for me to find one.

The Dunkin’ Perks™ program was piloted in Albany, NY last year and went very well according to Nick Godfrey of Customer Portfolios.

As to how the one-to-one marketing program works, Godfrey said, “As customers use their Perks card, all transaction data is captured so we know what they are spending per visit, how often they are visiting their Dunkin’ Donuts store, and at what time of day they are visiting. This enables us to target customers with relevant, just out of reach offers. When customers change their behavior, they are rewarded. Everyone is happy. To that end, we consistently see over a 50% open rate for Perks’ emails!”

Godfrey added, “To ensure customers become accustomed to receiving and recognizing their regularly scheduled Perks email, all emails carry the same subject line: Dunkin' Perks Alert.”

The Agency Behind the Dunkin’ Perks™ Program

Customer Portfolios is the agency behind successful database marketing programs for many brands including Johnston & Murphy, Hat World/Lids, Unicef, World Travel Holdings, and Baskin-Robbins.  The firm’s “Lights-Out Marketing” solution enables organizations to execute highly targeted and triggered email marketing programs that are based on such specifics as the customer's segment, life cycle stage, and purchasing behavior.

When integrating email marketing with other applications, the first step towards success is to make a plan.  I advise clients to use the old journalism “5 Ws and an H” as your guide: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

Who is going to code / program the integration?  Usually, this resource is an internal developer; but due to time and budget constraints, sometimes this work is contracted out to make a deadline.  Regardless, the “who” decision needs to be made first so the proper developer can be included in the planning process and provide developer-specific details or suggestions if needed.
 
What are your needs for the integration? Is it to automatically send emails based on an action, or is it to pull back tracking from your email application to your database of record or CRM system?  With an open API like ExactTarget’s, there are so many options of how and what to integrate.  Getting a clear sense of everything you want to accomplish from the beginning will help your organization determine whether all of the initiatives should be put into one integration project, broken up into smaller projects in order to keep a timeline, etc.
 
When does the integration need to be deployed?  It is essential to have (and communicate!) a release date so everyone working on the project knows what the schedule is.  Keep in mind that for successful integration, you should build in time to develop and time to test, and make sure to take both into consideration when developing your schedule.  Also, it is good idea to find out what other projects people have on their plate.  While you may want to have an integration running by the end of the month, the developers and / or testers may not be able to keep to that timeline due to other deadlines.

Where will the integration be hosted?  Integrations are typically hosted on a server your company owns, but it needs to be decided if the proper resources (hard drive space) have been allocated to run the project.
 
Why are you integrating? This is similar to the what are your needs, but it goes a little beyond that.  Think big picture: once the integration is setup, how will you utilize it in your business process?  I’ve had experiences where companies want to integrate email with other applications, but do not understand why the integration is important to their business.  What are the ultimate goals you are hoping to accomplish?  Establishing the “why” will help you secure internal buy-in on the investment and measure whether or not the integration is successful in the future.

And don’t forget the “H”…
 
How will the integration be implemented?  In addition to the decision of who will actually implement the integration, you should also determine what the contingencies and risk factors for implementation are as well.  For example, what are you going to do if something doesn’t go as planned?  Identifying and planning for the unexpected factors from the beginning will help ensure your integration gets up and running smoothly.
 
Quite essentially, solid planning is key before starting any integration project.  So remember your 5 Ws + 1 H, and contact ExactTarget for more information.

Jessica Koch, Integration Consultant

I am seeing more and more examples of how smart marketers are using email for customer service. And with today’s generation of APIs (Application Program Interfaces), it’s easier than ever to integrate email technology with database technology to deliver fully automated customer service messages – that are personal and timely – and require no human intervention.

Why more companies do not use email to deliver subscription renewal, billing reminders and other “alerts” is beyond me. It’s just good customer service. And for those companies that do, it is becoming a huge competitive advantage. I don’t have the metrics to support my opinion, but I believe we are getting closer to seeing just how important email is in building relationship equity which in turn builds brand equity.

Here’s a good example.

Last week, I received an email from my 23 year old son, Chris, who is typical of today’s “digital media” consumer who prefers the speed and ease of email. His recent experience with an insurance company serves as a good example of what can go wrong when email is not used to alert customers when their policy is about to expire. Here’s his story:

“I came into the office this morning and realized that my car insurance expired on December 23rd. No email was sent to me from (my auto insurance company) alerting me to the fact that my policy was due to expire and inviting me to renew. This caused me to think about how great it would have been to receive an email with anything in the subject line alerting me to my policy's impending expiration.

This leads to two conclusions about email, one fairly obvious.

1. Subject lines are more important in 2008 than ever. We are inundated with email, and subject lines are being skimmed more and more. There's no longer the necessity to entice the recipient with subject lines, you now must communicate the gist of the message in the subject line.

2. This leads me to my second and slightly less obvious point. No longer is it a perk for us to receive emails alerting us to special offers or information that is timely (like policy expiration alerts)…we now expect it. I have paperless billing for everything. I now expect that when I need to be alerted about something -- of interest or importance -- that I will be informed of via email. In fact, I have come to expect this.

Those of us who work in the field of online marketing understand that today, it’s all about ROI. Is there a better way to generate positive ROI than by retaining an existing customer? For two cents - or whatever the going rate is for email - (my auto insurance company) could have made $960 (I can't wait until I'm 25 for cheap insurance!). I'm not a math wiz, but spending two cents to generate a $960 insurance renewal seems like a pretty good ROI!”

Slightly off topic here, but I feel like I am on a hidden camera show right now.  Trying to log into my Sprint account, I have been informed that Sprint has upgraded their security policy.  To verify my identity, they ask me to answer questions about relevant items such as:

1. The make and model of my car.  Okay, so how does Sprint know that? And how is it relevant really to my cell phone usage?
2. The address I live on when I purchased my car.  Even a bit more freaky... again, how does Sprint know that?  Moreover, this appears to be evidence that cell rates are too high.  If they have money to build databases that store that information, then they definitely have too much money.
3. Select from a list of properties "Which of the following properties have you PREVIOUSLY OR CURRENTLY owned?"  Maybe I understand this one, I have been a customer of Sprint for a while, tracking historical addresses makes some sense... I guess?
4. What month and year I purchased the aforementioned home? I have no idea... that was three houses ago!! I just went back and checked my tax records from 2000 and for some reason I can't find the month I purchased the home.  It was summer, I think.  I remember it was a really hot day when I moved.  In fact, I remember vowing never to ever to move again that day. Oh my, I broke that vow, how can I be so dishonest with myself? Okay, you got me there... I don't know when I bought that house and I am getting depressed thinking about it. If all else fails, go with option C.
5. Pick from a list of streets I never lived on.  Apparently C was incorrent because they have more questions for me. All of these street names look familiar. One of the streets listed was from an appartment I rented in college in 1993! Some great memories from that apartment. Gee Sprint, thanks for taking me down memory lane. It is clear you know me better than I know myself.
6. The name of the seller of a home I purchased 7 years ago.  Am I really expected to know this? It was just some guy, I dunno his name, I never even met the person.  I dealt through an agent.  You are asking me questions I don't even know the answer to.  From memory lane to flashbacks of my calculus final.
7. The names of people that have lived with me.  You have got to be kidding me. You track my roommates??  Roommates? I hated some of those people. They weren't even Sprint customers. How (and why) are you doing this to me?

I work in the industry where we analyze data to provide relevant marketing materials to customers. Things like email address, gender, occupation, and interests. But, this type of completely over the top use of data is the stuff that gives the privacy mongers ammunition. There is a balance. If data is relevant and helps you identify me as who I claim to be, or helps you provide me with information I want, that is one thing. To chronical my life and track it for the past 15 years is WWWAAAAYYYY too much. If we want Washington to stay out of the online privacy world, companies need to use a bit more common sense. Don't make people feel like they are in an episode of the twilite zone.

Welcome to 2008, where the “build” and “features” collide to create solutions.  Here at ExactTarget, 2008 should be an explosive collection of solutions for retail – led by our client’s business objectives and leading industry trends.  Over the next several weeks, I will be posting a flurry of solutions as part of a series on our Retail Email blog.

These will include solutions for:
Hidden treasures of web analytics
Automating abandoned basket emails
Automating check-out abandonment emails
New product alerts by product category (email and mobile)
Price drop alerts (email and mobile)
“In-Stock” notification alerts (email and mobile)
Advanced merchandising powered by SLI Systems, Endeca, Mercado, Celebros
Advanced cross selling powered by Certona, Aggregate Knoweldge
Pragmatic transactional email
Frequency capping by email intent

These programs used to be nearly impossible to execute for ANY Email Service Provider.  So what’s changed?  After a decade working with software companies (many of which were SaaS predecessors) I’ve noticed that there are two types of years: ”build” years and “feature” years.  At ExactTarget, 2007 was one of those rare years in history where “features” and “build” happen simultaneously.

As a “feature" year, it was noteworthy with lots of new “stuff” hitting the ExactTarget application, including enhancements to our:

• Dynamic merchandising solution – Point our application to your website and we’ll syndicate products, cross sells, more.
• Outstanding usability enhancements – Our award winning usability was taken to an even further extreme by streamline your ability to edit content in the context of the email itself
• New transactional email capabilities – All of the power of the ExactTarget email creation process, but with a convenient “single console” for marketers
• And a collection of features far too numerous to mention here!

But a “build year” is just as important.  It’s a year where we take a look at our architecture, our business model, our services organization and say “Will it support our vision for the future?”  Those of you who attended our user conference this fall got a glimpse of just how important that question is to ExactTarget, resulting in:

• A new data center in Las Vegas – This monster data center is up and running in a hot capacity.  This makes ExactTarget the premier ESP when your email is mission critical.
• Significant database re-architecture – It’s not just about performance, it’s about freedom.  From the ability to refresh segments that impact over 8 billion subscriber (last weeks stats), but enhanced security and flexibility
• Unparallel support for custom data — Your world is more than lists of subscriber.  My merchants have complex products relationships, web analytics data, transactional data (from brick and mortar, call center, online, etc).  In what is a remarkable effort, our product team put COMPLETE CONTROL of data into the hands of our customers.
• Support for mobile messaging, voice and RSS were released this year — Moving ExactTarget from the one-to-one emails of today and towards the one-to-one messaging of tomorrow.

The foundation laid in 2007 is sure to result in 2008 being a stellar year!  This is why you will see more innovative solutions from ExactTarget than ever before (and more than any other ESP). The end result will be more sales, to more customers, more frequently…

If it’s been awhile since you visited our case study library, now’s the time.

We just added a cool feature called an “easy access form” that will change the way you interact with our website – for the better!

Background: Our Marketing Team spends a lot of time researching what resources our clients need to improve their email marketing programs. We particularly enjoy sharing our client’s success stories through user-friendly, engaging case studies that are available for download through the resources section of our website. If you’re an existing customer or a newbie to the email marketing world, check out our 14 exciting case studies (including the newest ExactTarget CaseStudy featuring CareerBuilder.com) and learn how to optimize your email marketing program from marketers who have been there and done that.

If you visited our site in the past, you probably had to complete the same form every time you wanted to download a case study. Annoying, right?

We agree. That’s why we just added an “easy access form” to our case study page. Let’s take a look on what’s going on behind the scenes:

1. You submit your email address, tell us how you heard about us, and click “submit.”

2. A script calls the API and checks to see if your email address already exists in our CRM database.

3. If you already exist in our CRM system, you’re done. No more forms. A triggered email is automatically sent from the Marketing Team’s Enterprise Edition with a link to the case study you requested. (Screen1)

4. If our system doesn’t recognize your email address, you’ll be asked to fill out a few other pieces of information before downloading a case study. But remember, this only happens once. The next time you visit the site to download a case study, our system will recognize you and save you the hassle of filling out another form!  (Screen2)

 

How can this scenario benefit your own website visitors? With the launch of our Fall 2007 Release, ExactTarget now supports the ability to create microsites, which are HTML pages hosted by our system. That means you can now combine web forms and email campaigns (both of which are tracked in one application) and immediately see results from inside your email marketing program. How cool is that!

Next up: “Easy access forms” for whitepapers – stay tuned!


Michael Mehrmann
Manager, Web Development

Not for you, analytics amateur
The purpose of this posting isn’t to talk about adoption, it’s not to discuss the fact that many organization who have purchased analytics solutions aren’t using them, it’s not to point out the fact that if you are involved in on-line commerce you should have a dedicated web analytics resource (at least part time).  This is an article for the rest of you.

 

Many of my retail brethren “get it”.  You are looking at your reports…you are deciphering the difference between top product viewed and top product purchased, you are looking at and optimizing cross sell placement within your product detail pages, you are calculating GROAS on your search marketing spend.  In short, you are turning your investment in analytics into a finely tuned money making machine.  This posting is for you…because even you, my high end web analytics gurus – adopters and embracers – have one more step left…an opportunity tucked away in the minds of the industries big gun consultants, concepts usually reserved for those willing to pay top dollar to take their business to another level. 

 

Before we understand where we are going, let’s look at where we have been.  Like the first fish that flopped its way onto land, sprouted legs, and walked off to launch the Starbucks brand, Web Analytics is evolving.  In just 6 short years web analytics has gone from being a tool that simply counted visitors and hits, into being the life blood for many merchants.

If you haven’t looked at web analytics solutions lately, you will be shocked.  I have clients using web analytics to do product demand analysis, support product soft launches, assess ALL acquisition efforts (across the web, print, radio, tv), I’ve even got one customer who has laid their web analytics solution over their data warehouse to leverage cross channel purchase activity in the context of their web analytics strategy (or visa-versa).   They can even count how many hits they had to their homepage!! (yes, that’s a joke.  The jokes are bad,  but at least there are a lot of them).

 

Welcome to the Galapagos – here is your long tail
The most important result of web analytics Darwinian transformation from basic reporting into complex data analysis was the move from aggregate level reporting into a visitor centric data model.  Meaning, web analytics (starting with Omniture) started building a “visitor database”, where profiles started to be generated on individuals, persona’s started to take shape, and suddenly it wasn’t simply about “what” was happening on your site, it was “who” did that “what”. 

 

The other players in the space have all begun to catch up.  Every major analytics platform can now tell me that a specific person saw a specific product, on a specific date, and that they added it to their basket, but didn’t purchase.  The volume of data is great, but how do we bridge the gap between insight on the individual level, and the action that we should be taking?

 

We must first understand the data. The most critical thing to keep in mind is that while web analytics data is amazing valuable, it is by design limited in it’s visibility.  Huh?  Alright, most of you reading this are multi-channel…you have an extensive print operation, brick and mortar storefronts, you have loyalty programs, you have a lot of data.  This is where your understanding of your shopper’s TRUE LIFETIME VALUE resides.  It’s the fact that despite the fact that Leslie purchased $3,000 worth of product on-line last year, she returned $2500 worth of it and called customer server 36 times.  Your web analytics platform will have her flagged as a high value customer, but you know better.

 

We’ve been dating for a while, let’s get engaged
So, what is the value of web analytics?  Engagement.  Say it one time with me…E-N-G-A-G-E-M-E-N-T!  When someone visits your website, it’s for a reason, they have become engaged with you due to a product you carry, a promotion you are running, or brand loyalty.  Your job, Mr./Mrs. Retailer, is to use the fact that your customer has contacted you and to take an action (not literally contacted you, figuratively – a metaphorical “contact” based on the customer electing to visit your site). Action is the key…action is where the dollars are hiding.  To define action, you guessed it, we are going to look to the data.

 

Recognizing that your website is a vehicle for not simply transactional process, but shopper engagement, let’s look towards the data we should be exploring: 

Data Point	What are we looking for	What does it mean to you
Cart/Basket	We want to see not only who abandoned, but who purchased.  As importantly, what was in the basket/cart	Re-marketing fodder, a chance to put product back in front of customers/visitors in a relevant manner based on conversion.
SKUs	What were the top viewed SKUs for non-purchasing shoppers? What were the top viewed SKUs viewed but not purchased by customer who completed an order? What were top viewed SKUs vs. top purchased SKUS (indicating potential ship rate issues, or availability issues especially for you soft goods merchants carrying stylized products)	With the Cart/Basket abandonment we have identified the “who” we are targeting, the details give us the “what” are we going to put back in front of them.  Please see my other article on “MMM…Tasty /or/ That’s a high quality SKU” – covering the topic on assessing customer behavior activity to quantify the level of engagement the customer has on a SKU by SKU basis…put the product in front of them they are most likely to purchase..
Categories/ Departments	What were those top viewed department or categories?	If I’m not putting a product in front of engaged customers, I’m putting a category.
Value Added Pages	What value added pages were viewed?  Did they view my loyalty program?	Identify the level of engagement with my brand, customer looking at ship tables, customer service pages, loyalty programs pages carry a higher level of engagement with my brand..and are inherently more valuable.
Acquisition Source & key words	Where did they come from and what drove them to my website.	If they showed up to my website from Google looking for Nike Running Shoes, what product should I put in front of them to make the buy?
More	This is a primer…a blog posting, not a book.	Hmm…maybe I should write a book?  Marketing strategies in free form prose, or haiku…

 

So…now that you’ve identified the data, what are you going to do with it?  Most web analytics solutions can create a feed. 

Feed (Fe-ed verb)- A process resulting in an export of scenario driven data that includes all in the table above, in addition to any information that may have ever been captured about that customer in an conversion process (capturing an order, email sign up, catalog request, contest entry). 

 

Your job?  Turn the feed into dollars…so let’s assume that the web analytics company is going to push this data into an eMail Marketing Solutions provider, like ExactTarget.  Hey – imagine that…using ExactTarget as the example….hmmm….must mean we already support this!

 

Bringing a knife to a gun fight
I had the privilege of consulting with a major electronics retailer on their remarketing strategy…their goal was very simple.  Put the SKU that the customer was most engaged with, but did not purchase, back in front of them in a monthly email promo. 

 

The email itself was pretty simple.  It featured a large primary offer section (free shipping, yadda) and a grid of 8 products below it.  Now, this retailer’s strategy was to be a little sly…using dynamic content (a process in which content optimizes itself for the intended recipient)– the email would include product that aligned to general interest capture as demographic data (I like computers and digital photography – I’ll see new cameras photo printers, and multi-media laptops).  However one of these 8 featured products was special.

 

The featured product on the far left was using a new technology called Content Syndication (or Dynamic Merchandising - for our retail clients), which allows me to reach out to the customer website and request a specific product for a specific customer.  In this case, the request was very dynamic.  If the customer was a new customer (not in the DB as a converted customer – showing as a $0 customer), I would request content that included the SKU and a promotions code good for a 10% discount.  The website would return the product, with strike through pricing illustrating the discount, and hard coded message “Hurry, supplies are limited”.  If the customer was an existing customer, no promotion code was carried and the targeted product displayed with standard pricing.  In either situation if the product was NLA or back ordered, the  SKUs would be replaced with a default SKU.

 

UPDATE:  This is one approach of about 6 unique strategies for product inclusion in remarketing emails.  Other approaches are far more subtle, others overt…all have merit.  Your formula for success is based on your market, your segmentation strategy, and a hand full of other variables.

 

Is that sorcery…some kind of Voodoo? 
No, simply technology.  This uses a process that ExactTarget developed called Content Syndication.  It allows merchants to use their existing website logic to push products, categories, search results and much more into an email.

 

Many merchants use Content Syndication to put cross sells into emails, or  to power marketing managed transactional emails…really almost anything you want to accomplish.  There are some merchants who no longer worry about putting product into their email at all, allowing Content Syndication to reach out to your website to pull an “email specials” department directly …and best of all…your design and product availability rules are all maintained.

 

The take away?
This is an example (one of 30) on how leveraging data in your web analytics solution, combined with your eComemrce platform, and a robust email solution can be used to dynamically include highly targeted product within your email strategy.  The key concept being  - don’t guess about what product your customers are interested in, when your customer are telling you every time they visit your website.  Remember that your web analytics platform will tell you EXACTLY what products they interested in and, using qualitative/quantities SKUs level analysis, will tell you how interested in those product I am. 

 

And YES…you can do this.  Virtually every merchant can.  Data feeds are largely supported by virtually every web analytics solution. 

 

During a recent conference tour in San Fran, I wandered into a video store in SOMA. Admiring the wide selection of obscure cult films of this obviously independent store, I grabbed a copy of Clerks 2 and headed for the register.

"Wanna save two dollars?" the woman behind the counter crowed. "Give me your Blockbuster card." Kind of odd, I thought, offering a discount if I was a BlockBuster member? That's when I noticed behind the register. Torn, ripped, mangled, nailed to the wall for all to see...BlockBuster loyalty/membership cards shunned by their no longer loyal customers.

Loyalty Programs - whether the term fills you with rage or that "grandma's fresh-baked cookies" sensation, there is no denying loyalty programs are here to stay. More and more merchants I consult with are somewhere in the stages of implementing a loyalty program. Once a nightmare to manage, a handful of service providers and payment processors have packaged up "turn key" solutions.

These flexible solutions can provide tiered-levels, points-based systems, dollar value-based systems, flexible expirations, programs customers join, are auto-enrolled, or pay for. As someone who has architected cross-platform solutions from scratch, I give a whole-hearted BRAVO!

The problem is these programs don't explore the lateral opportunities afforded to merchants by extending loyalty program data into email solutions providers. Their email ability ends at welcomes, statements, renewals, and expiration alerts. By embracing the complementary relationship between loyalty provider and email provider, hidden opportunities and big returns are in reach.

How so? Let's start with the data. We'll assume you have an email marketing database bringing in larger volumes of customer data from multiple sources - web analytics, order management systems, POS or your data warehouse. This means you can act on that data. Your loyalty program data is actionable as well, especially as part of the mix.

From current status, to date of last in-store purchase, store location or last product purchased, you have a wealth of information. All you need to do is ask for it to be sent to your ESP (in an automated, secure manner). Why would you do this? For the exact same reason you invested in your loyalty programs technology to begin with.

TOP 10 STRATEGIES FOR DRIVING MORE SALES AND EXTENDED CUSTOMER VALUE THROUGH AN INTEGRATED LOYALTY PROGRAM STRATEGY:

10. Every email should have a dynamic customer center that shows me my points balance, dollar value, expiration date, etc.

9. A loyalty-based call to action - let me know I'm 10 points away from my next certificate.

8. Exclusive offers - I'm in your loyalty program, make me feel loved.

7. Extend into automated re-marketing. I came to your website and abandoned my basket. I am a platinum member - include that fact and offer me double points.

6. Stem brand attrition - dynamically recognizing customers who have not purchased, despite being a member.

5. Automate customer service - Want a button on your website that triggers an email with a copy of the customer's loyalty data? Want to include a coupon? Me, too.

4. Geo-aware emails - customer suddenly buying from a different store than their default preference? Send them an email to ask if they moved.

3. Cross-sells based on in-store purchase.

2. In-store purchase thank you emails. How about throwing in a coupon or online promo code based on customer value.

And the #1 reason to integrate loyalty program data into your Email Solutions Provider....

1. IT'S YOUR DATA! You spent a lot of money to bring your loyalty program to life. You may as well maximize the value. Data integration is cheap and easy and I know your CPM won't break the bank...as a matter of fact, i can't think of a good reason NOT to do this. Can you?

Angel Morales
Director, Retail Strategies 

You saw it here first. The email revolution will be triggered. ExactTarget's Fall Release will be the trigger that starts the next revolution in one-to-one marketing. The ability to build programs within your email marketing system that run by themselves. Are you kidding me? Relevant Relational Data driving content in a single email marketing solution. It get's better, we have added the ability to send voice mail and text messsaging.

In one release? ExactTarget will need to hire someone to consult with customers on how to re-think database marketing given ExactTarget's latest toolset. Wait a minute. That's my job. Sorry readers I have to get ready for the revolution. No time to chat. One-to-one marketing is limited only by your imagination. Power to the Marketer.

If They say it can't be done - They haven't seen ExactTarget's Fall Release.

Bill Hammer
Senior Integration Consultant 

Fair and Gentle Reader,

With as much joy and unadulterated enthisiasm as a child wandering their way down stairs on a snowy Christmas morning to see an ocean of presents drifting beneath the ornament laden bows of a festive blue spruce - I welcome you to the ExactTarget Retail Email blog. 

Emails are like sunbeams casting their radiant warmth into the inbox of each and every one of your customers.  Together we we explore the wonderful world of ...grrr....no...I can't do it.  This is NEVER going to be a warm and fuzzy blog.  That kind of nonsense frankly...well...it makes me a little ill.

 The reality is email is hard.  You are competing in an overly saturated communication channel where the constant screaming for inbox attention is as deafening as sitting in the first row of the Black Sabbath reunion tour.  The key thing it to rise above the noise.  Offer your customers something of value.

Now, you won't be seeing a lot in the Retail Email section about deliverability...nor email optimization...we have other bloggers taking care of those topics.  Oh no, my merchants...we are going to focus on the reason you send email in the first place...SALES. 

This blog is dedicated to driving the evolution of email into explosive new directions.  At times, you'll hear me steal a phrase or two from traditional database marketing, then we will change gears by talking about 1-to-1 merchandising, advanced transactional email strategies, automated customer life-cycle optimization, predictive analysis...and maybe even a great recipe for ceviche. 

Ultimately, we'll exchange some good ideas.  That's my goal with this blog...to inspire and be inspired, take some jabs at industry pundits, and learn a thing or two along the way.  Gosh, who knows, we might even make a new friend or two.

Cheers all,
Angel Morales, Director of Retail Strategies