How Do You Know Your Email is Working?

I recently wrote an article for the DMA's Infobox Email Newsletter in which I suggested that the current credit crunch would help move the email to the channel to the next level. Email really came into its own during the dotcom bust. The dotcoms were early adopters of the email channel but instead of email flaming out with the dotcoms, there was a huge library of case studies that sold the channel to the non-dotcoms.

I then went on to state that this credit crunch will force marketers to better segment their lists because finance directors are going to expect increasingly higher return on investment. In addition, marketers are realising that as email address penetration tops out they are all competing for the same static number of readers. This will result in an increase in the cost of acquisition for opt-ins, so it is important that marketers keep as many of their readers engaged as possible. Better targeting equates to increased relevance which leads to increased engagement.

So today I read an eMarketer article about a MarketingSherpa survey. Not surprisingly, email marketers that think email is becoming more effective will spend more money on it and email marketers that think email is becoming less effective try to keep email as close to free as possible.

The part that bothered me was the group that responded with "e-mail is cheap and still working-why invest more?" Didn't these people read my article? Maybe it didn't get much take-up in the US.

Actually, I think it is down to how these marketers are measuring their email programs. By focusing only on the process metrics of delivery, open, and click rates it is hard to see when large segment of your population becomes disengaged with your email program. By looking however, at the performance metrics like engagement, sales, return on investment, you get a much better picture of whether your email program is working. I have yet to find a client that is in the business of generating clicks. Every client I have ever worked with, was in the business of generating sales. That should be the only indicator of whether an email program is working.

Upcoming DMA Events

I have posted two new links in the upcoming events section. I am chairing the first and it should be a spirited discussion about changes to internet security and the impact this will have on digital marketing channels.

The second is the Email Marketing Councils second big conference of the year. There is a new format a lot of new content and some great speakers. Unfortunately, I was not able to make the cut and get on the speakers list for this one so I am looking for a guess pass if anybody has an extra.

We Now Resume Normal Service

Earlier today it was pointed out to me that I have not posted since June. I justified not posting in July and August as it being the summer holidays and nobody would read it anyway. I am not sure how to justify September, but its October now so right back at it.

Also I have started playing around with FeedBurner. To get an enhanced experience start using the URL below to access my blog.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheEmailPractice

Crunch Ends Email 'Batch and Blast'

Below is an article that was first published in the DMA Email Marketing Council email newsletter called InfoBox and then picked up by Precision Marketing on 19 May.

According to the media, the UK faces the greatest economic correction since The Great Depression. While newspapers tend to exaggerate to sell more copies, it is clear that the economic outlook for 2008 is not rosy. In tough times, marketing is usually the first thing to get cut, so the question is: should email marketers be worried?

I started in the email business at the height of the US dotcom boom. It seemed that there was a lavish launch party almost every night. When the crash came, the launch parties were replaced by pink slip parties. This might not have been the band playing on the deck of the Titanic but we were more than a little nervous.

It turned out to be the best thing for the industry. The dot-coms were early adopters of email marketing and without their largesse we tightened our belts. We also had to start running our businesses.like businesses. When we sifted through the ashes we found a large number of case studies on the effectiveness of the channel, which convinced more "traditional" companies to dive into the email pool.

Fast forward to 2008. Should we be worried? No, because just like the dotcom bust, this will force email to grow up. We have spent the intervening years talking about targeting and relevance but have not done much about it. This has been driven in large part by the low cost of each incremental email. Unlike other channels, there is no disincentive to over-target. On top of this, email continues t o be one of the most effective direct marketing channels, which creates tremendous internal pressures to email more people more often.

The email industry has proven that targeted, relevant emails deliver better initial response and engagement over the long term. At the same time, consumers have little patience with irrelevant emails and will quickly become disengaged. This emerging economic environment will give email marketers the incentive to stop the "batch and blast" approach and start leveraging the level of micro-targeting that email allows. The efficacy of the channel will allow us to keep or grow our budgets and the tough times will force us to become a much stronger channel.

UK Digital Penetation Index

Here are some good stats on the state of the UK market.

http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/leadership/0,1045,sid%253D176972,00.html

The Rich fail To Get Richer

Here is an interesting article that appeared in last week's Precision Marketing. I disagree with the premise that email is "if it is not already dead, is certainly struggling for breath." As you can see from my quote, email marketing should be about targeting and the clever use of data. This is not to say that the creative idea, design, and copywriting are not important but their limitations do not mean the death of email is imminent.

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The IDM Business Performance Awards

Yay Team!

Yesterday the BT Business and Ogilvy team won the IDM Business Performance Bronze Award for the BT Business Total Broadband campaign. You can see the work and other winners here:

http://www.theidm.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=contentDisplay.&chn=1&tpc=5&stp=624

And here is a photo of the group that picked up the award.

http://www.theidm.com/download/img/bpa08_bronzewinner.jpg

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