When less equals More Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM
, BY MICHELLE EICHNER AND LEN SHNEYDER
JobZone
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The
goals of those involved in acquisition are often at odds with today's
e-mail reality. When success is measured on the number of new
registrants and cost per registrant, marketers often rely on tactics
that pose substantial risks to the health and well being of core
customer communications. This is because they are likely to be adding
names that have no real interest in receiving your ongoing e-mails.
Again,
more is not better! One such tactic is incentive-based the heavy use
of promotions and sweepstakes to quickly and inexpensively acquire new
names for your database. Folks sign up for the sweepstakes and then
immediately unsubscribe or, worse yet, complain tht you are spamming
them. Remember, at ISPs such as AOL if a tiny fraction of your
customers complain you are spamming them, you risk having all your mail
blocked (yes that means all mail including the mail to your active
and engaged customers!).
Another tactic is what we call the
hidden-agenda method. You may make a compelling benefit such as
access to key information on your Website contingent, upon the person
providing you their e-mail address.
In many cases, the
customer may want access to your site, but has no interest in ongoing
e-mails so to accomplish this, he or she provides a fake address. As
a result, your bad-address rate spikes for newly acquired names, and
you once again risk having all mail blocked.
E-mail appends,
unqualified co-registration programs, the list goes on but the risks
to your good mailing reputation cannot be ignored and should be
measured. Only then can the potential impact be quantified and fully
understood. Today, clarity is king. More names is definitively not
better, and you should always provide a clear, unencumbered, and
conspicuous opt-in to your ongoing e-mail communications.
Change what you're sending your customers
Not
every customer should get the exact same thing. This becomes even more
true over the course of their relationship with you. Your customers are
unique individuals; providing relevant and personalized content will
inspire and motivate them to visit your site and hopefully purchase
your products and services.
Leverage the power of e-mail!
Affordable e-mail technology allows you to provide a truly one-to-one
message based on three main data sources: who they are (age, gender,
geographic location, job type etc.), what they want (stated preferences
at e-mail capture) and what they do (interests you ascertain by
tracking what they click on including e-mail and Web).
But
too little consideration is given to the fact that your customers'
interests evolve over time. The end result is that your customers,
bored with your content and annoyed by the frequency of your mailings,
will unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam. Therefore, it is
critical that you do not forget to revisit your segmentation strategy
continuously over the course of the customer lifecycle.
Fine tune the frequency of your communications
Not
every customer needs or wants to get an e-mail every single time
you send one out. Mail smarter and to the right people. As we've
discussed, there's an inherent danger in sending too much mail. Do not
overestimate your customers' appetite for your e-mails you don't want
to burn out the new subscribers and you don't want to anger older ones
who may have forgotten how or why they wound up on your list.
Sending
friendly and gentle reminders requesting profile updates, and those
such as We haven't heard from you in a while, would you like to remain
on our list? are excellent tactics and provide a personal touch.
Another
practical approach: Do not mail everyone at the same time. Send your
most active names first and allow those to deliver. Then create a
separate and relevant e-mail to your least active names and send that
at least a full day after you've delivered your bread and butter. This
may also have an added benefit of smoothing Web traffic and fulfillment.
And
last but not least, remember: Although every name on your list
represents incremental revenue, those names just as easily represent
exponentially greater amounts of lost revenue because they can impact
the delivery of your entire campaign. This is why less is truly more
when it comes to e-mail marketing.
Michelle
Eichner is chief operating officer/vice president of client development
and Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry
communications for Pivotal Veracity, an e-mail deliverability service
provider.
Between a rock and a hard place
A
client e-mails all opt-in names weekly (excluding those who have
unsubscribed, bounced, or generated a spam complaint). In late 2006,
Comcast blocked its IPs, preventing the client from being able to
deliver any e-mail to Comcast. We contacted Comcast to ask why the
client's e-mails were being blocked, and learned Comcast's filter
(Brightmail) reported X% of this client's mail as spam. Based on a
request from us, Comcast removed the block and the client continued
mailing without changing its practices.
Business
continued as usual, but so did the specter of less equals more. The
client mailed its entire house file again and triggered Comcast's
filters again. We again had the block lifted. But this quickly became
less than ideal for the mailer, Pivotal Veracity, and Comcast;
something had to be done.
The
mailer's first tactic was to e-mail only subscribers with any
post-signup activity, such as clicks or purchases, regardless of how
long ago. Unfortunately, this also resulted in Comcast blocking the
mail as in previous campaigns. The implication: Just because someone
was engaged at one time does not mean they are still engaged and, as
many folks do, they used the report-as-spam button to get off the list.
Rather
desperate now, the mailer decided to test e-mailing only to Comcast
addresses that had made a purchase; a dramatic measure but one with
dramatic results. Since employing a Comcast mail strategy that includes
buyers only, this client has received consistent 100% inbox delivery.
Older,
inactive users were complaining, which caused the entire e-mail to be
blocked by Comcast. Although the inactive names as a segment were
producing incremental revenue as a small fraction purchased, the effect
of sending e-mails to these users actually resulted in a net loss of
revenue because it affected the ability to mail any e-mails to Comcast.
By taking proactive measures, the client has been able to successfully deliver to the inbox across all subsequent campaigns. ME/LS
