Last week, I had the pleasure of participating on a panel at the inaugural Internet Summit ’08 conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The event attracted more than 600 marketing and technology professionals to the Friday Center on the UNC campus. It was a first class event all the way around. My compliments to Eric Gregg, Scott Hedrick and the TechJournal South team who produced this conference.

Our panel tackled the topic, “Next Generation Email Marketing” and not surprisingly, many of the questions focused on how businesses are using email to stay engaged with customers and prospects in today’s challenging economy.

One thing is clear. Those companies that have invested in the development of their email subscriber base are now reaping the rewards for their efforts. Companies that have the ability to use email to nurture leads, convert prospects to buyers, drive repeat purchase, and generate referrals from satisfied customers have a huge competitive advantage over those that don’t. 

At a time when advertising and marketing expenses are being slashed and marketers need to do more with less, it’s no mystery why we are seeing budgets shifting to email. With an average ROI of $45 for every dollar spent (Source: The DMA), email has become the “linchpin solution” for customer retention and growth.

Where to Get Your Email Marketing “Executive MBA”

If you want to know about the top trends and best practices of email marketing, I highly recommend you sign up for the special pre-conference workshop that my friend and colleague Jeanne Jennings of JeanneJennings.com will lead at the upcoming National Center for Database Marketing Conference (NCDM) in Orlando. Our seminar, “Insider Tips for Making Your Email Marketing Efforts More Effective – and More Profitable” will be held on Monday, December 8th from 9:10 AM to 11:50 AM.

Whether you’re managing email, direct marketing, or the web, figuring out the best combination of customer touch points to increase response rates and drive sales shouldn’t be a guessing game. At NCDM, you’ll learn about the latest online and offline analytical approaches, multichannel marketing strategies and technology solutions that you need to make your database marketing program effective.

Get Registered for NCDM!
If you have not yet registered for NCDM, there’s still time and there are plenty of registration options to fit your needs. To register, just go to the NCDM registration page on the NCDM 2008 website where you can also download the complete NCDM 2008 Conference Brochure.

Q:  Are there email design considerations I should make in the midst of a tough economy?

A: Since email design is the artful visualization of a business plan, marketers need to first ensure their communications strategy is solid. The focus should be on the subscriber and the financial challenges he or she is facing. Economy-induced challenges create strong emotional subscriber responses that need to be acknowledged and addressed in marketing communications.

Here are some tips:

1. Show appreciation. Customers should feel appreciated for their loyalty, so include a thank you note or email. Send holiday well wishes and request their feedback on how to better serve them in the new year. This shouldn’t be a check box survey that asks for their satisfaction level on a five point scale, but a sincere open-ended question that allows them to express their needs, concerns, and suggestions. Demonstrate that it is about them, not about you.
2. Be Patient. Your subscriber is a person facing financial challenges, not number 5,241 on your data list. Be careful to avoid damaging your one-to-one relationship by increasing the quantity – and promotional force – of your messages. Subscribers’ disposable income may be stretched, so be sensitive to your level of purchasing insistence. Remember to provide extra relevance during these times to keep brand engagement high – even if purchases wane.
3. Be empathetic. Acknowledge tough times by offering valuable product-related solutions. Think creatively about emotional solutions that may encourage a purchase when budgetary restrictions are loosened. Share stories, solutions or resourceful ideas from other subscribers who are feeling the same economic pain. Consider creating an online community for subscribers to connect with each other. Listen.

All of these tips should be encompassed within the core communications message and resultant design focus. They should not be used as a gratuitous intro sentence preceding a 700 pixel deep promo visual. The message placement and dedicated design real estate demonstrate your sincerity.

Appreciation, patience, and respectful persistence will help nurture strong customer relationships during stressed financial times. The economy will rebound – be sure your loyal subscribers are still with you when it happens.


Melinda Baxter, Director of Marketing Services

Yesterday, an article I wrote on the Best Time of Day to sent email was featured in MediaPost's Email Insider column. The post highlights an interesting new perspective that our friends at The Center for Media Design have provided on when, and how, consumers read email.

The key take away of this article is similar to the key take-aways of the whitepaper we collaborated on, namely, that the details of our consumers lives matter. As we develop an email marketing strategy, we need to keep in mind what is going on in our consumers lives. This applies not only to targeted email campaigns by way of delivering relevant content, but to delivering the right types of messages at the right time of day. Wondering if morning or afternoon is the right time to deliver your messages? Well, based on the insights from CMD, it may depend on the type of message. Newsletters likely make sense early in the morning (especially for B2B marketers) when people first login to their email client and have some uninterupted time to read your message. Direct response messages may work better in the afternoon or evening when subscribers are in "quick hit" mode.
 
To give you a taste for the depth of insight of their work, you can download two free reports from their site. High School Media Too provides a look into a day in the life of 15 teenagers, while Middletown Media Studies 1 is the first wave of this research that they have made available since it is getting a little old. Payment is required for the more recent and more extensive studies, but at worth the investment. BTW, if you can't tell, I am a big fan of theirs.

I know you’ve heard me tout the value of personalizing email content hundreds of times. Still, I am amazed that many marketers don’t believe personalizing email is worth the effort! So, for those of you who still doubt the value of personalization, here’s more proof.

Writing in the October 28th issue of MediaPost’s Email Insider, Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon of email marketing agency, Smith-Harmon, note that a report put out this past summer by the Aberdeen Group found that top performing, or "Best-in-Class," organizations that collected and used data to personalize email campaigns, experienced an average order value increase of 57%.”

The report “Email Marketing: Get Personal with Your Customers” identifies the effects of email personalization on subscriber engagement. The study represents the views of more than 550 organizations and groups companies based on annual performance increases. Through their survey, Aberdeen found that top performing organizations (referred to as “Best-in-Class”) are twice as likely as “Laggards” to use the information collected within their database to personalize email campaigns.

Thomson CompuMark Believes in Personalization

Dave Wieneke, Interactive Marketing Manager at Thomson CompuMark, has proven the value of email personalization. He sends the monthly Client Times Online newsletter “on behalf” of CompuMark’s 22 account managers to attorneys who specialize in brand and copyright law. Each subscriber’s newsletter carries the photo and contact information of the CompuMark account manager with whom they work, and articles are personalized based on the defined preferences of each subscriber.

Says Wieneke, “The dynamic content tools of ExactTarget make this kind of personalization straight-forward; our marketing team implemented this without any specialized resources.”

Since Thomson CompuMark began personalizing email, the number of clickthroughs has increased by 63% and the amount of time subscribers are spending on content has gone up 41%! This is genuine subscriber engagement!

Using CRM Data to Personalize Email Content

One of the reasons Thomson CompuMark has been successful in personalizing email is because they have integrated their CRM system (Salesforce.com) with their email system (ExactTarget). To learn more about how to use CRM and Web Analytics data to personalize email content, download the ExactTarget white paper, “Integrating Email, CRM and Web Analytics”.

As promised earlier this week, I have compiled data showing the influence different channels have on driving purchases. I have only included data for teens and young adults. Moreover, this chart only takes age into account, while the recent white paper provides insights on personas that are more tightly defined specifically to drive insights for email marketing, SMS marketing, and direct marketing strategy at large.



One other point, there have been several questions about the comparisons of email marketing versus social network marketing highlighted in our research. Clearly, each channel plays a distinct role in the marketing mix. The main point regarding Social Networks is that they do not drive consumer to make purchase decisions. They may influence purchase decisions through branding, customer service, etc. But, as a direct marketing vehicle, Social Networks simply aren't the right vehicle to drive purchase decisions.

As the holidays approach, closing in on the last 3 months, it's amazing how quickly retailers begin to gear up on selling Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations.  But where are those deals, that door buster that is going to make me block out my calendar the day after Thanksgiving to hit the sale?  And where are the deals relevant to what I want to buy?  Sure, I could buy the Glow in the Dark 14 foot Mummy for 10% off but why on earth would I want that when I don't even have a front yard to put it in?

I introduce to you in a very exciting way, LIVE OFFERS!  I can't begin to tell you what a privilege it is to have our very astonishing Product Development Team create this "offering", no pun intended.  This e-mail marketing solution is very powerful for not just the marketer but the consumer.  We'll start from the consumer's point of view since I am just so excited about this.  I can't wait to receive relevant offers!!

Let's start with my demographic stats (hint, hint, please send me something relevant):
•    Gen Y (29-42)
•    Married
•    No Children
•    College Educated
•    Enjoys shopping, eating out, running and reading
•    Business Professional who works 50+ hours a week
•    Brand Advocate for Jupiter Vapors shoes

So, did I mention I enjoy high end shoes that I simply can't afford?  Yes, I do receive my yearly $25 birthday gift card in the mail from some Apparel & Accessory Retailers.  But my husband swiftly throws any additional solicitation (I like to call them DEALS) in the trash before I even begin to sort through the pile.  But, what if I were to receive an exclusive offer via e-mail that only the very savvy and efficient shoppers could cash in on?  What if I were to receive an offer for a pair of limited addition shoes that only I and 300 others would have the opportunity to purchase?  Now that's excitement!



So, how could a retailer create such an offering?  Well, the answer is pretty simple.  Live Offers allows retailers to target, predict and re-market offers.  What does that mean?  Let me explain.

1.)  You know that I am in my late 20's or 30's.  I am a business professional who enjoys shopping.  Therefore, it is likely I check e-mail often, have little time to hunt for discounts and enjoy very fashionable shoes.  With a targeted inventory based live offer, I can enjoy the convenience of an exclusive, relevant offer sent via e-mail that I can check from my Blackberry at any moment.

2.)  Using Live Offer Redemption Reports, you can view when I opened the offer, printed it and redeemed it in the store.  You even know what store location I redeemed the offer in.  This enables you with the data you need to predict which offers I'll enjoy in the future.

3.)  Re-market offers to new segments when existing offers didn't catch on with the initial segment.  Inventory based offers allow retailers to target the entire list with an offer but only provide the offer to the first x amount of people who open the offer.  If the offer was never redeemed, re-assign the offer for a more effective e-mail campaign.

Now that retailers have the opportunity to leverage truly 1-to-1 personalized offers, I'm hoping I'll get one very soon.  Nothing would brighten my day better than a deal on a great pair of gold pumps for the holidays.  Oh, Jupiter Vapors, please e-mail me an exclusive offer.  I promise, you'll have me at open!

Angela Khan
Product Marketing Manager