• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 3, 2011

Arthur Middleton Hughes, a noted author and vice president at The Database Marketing Institute, says that within companies email marketers struggle to gain an internal focus and spending. "In almost any organization, email is at the bottom of the power structure."

TV leads the pack, Hughes says in a keynote address for day two of the MediaPost Email Insider Summit.

Hughes said it is critical to determine the lifetime value of a customer, a metric he defines as profit received for a person over three years. Lifetime value can vary from company to company.

To determine that, Hughes suggests a metric known as an "off-email multiplier," which can evaluate the value of email marketing like TV. An email, for example, can directly lead to a purchase via a shopping cart. But, it can also lead to sparking general interest, leading to purchases made when someone goes to the store or makes a buy over the phone, etc.

Thus, "emails are like TV ads."

Still, measuring that "off email multiplier, is tough and does require an estimate at the end of the day.

But it is valuable in determining the "lifetime value of a customer," which can be crucial to persuade a CMO to apportion more dollars for an email marketing program -- more money for subscriber acquisition.

One way to test a company's "off e-mail multiplier" is to send out in-store coupons, and test how effective they might be.

Hughes offers multiple ways to acquire email addresses, such as holding a contest among employees on who is most effective at getting addressed at point of sale. There are also mobile programs that can work.

How successful can a strong acquisition program be? Hughes cited an example of how a $195,000 investment led to $35 million in added sales. The $195,000 might be the cost of one TV ad, which likely won't bring in an additional $35 million.

Hughes says improving a Web site is a strong way to improve email acquisition. There's a need to upgrade a site's "registration friendliness."

He says the Web sites can have "popover" ads, basically drop-down overlays encouraging people to sign-up to receive emails. The overlays can't be blocked by a pop-up blocker. "It's very annoying, but it works," Hughes commented.

Hughes is a 33-year veteran of database marketing, who shifted to the email space four years ago.