Commentary

E-Mail Focus: Break Down the (Empty) Silos

E-mail should be integrated within multimedia campaigns

When you hear about a good case study on an e-mail campaign, all too often it's just that  an e-mail campaign. But asiloed marketing program is not competitive enough in today's market. With savvy customers using multiple media simultaneously, and given that multichannel customers have been proven to be more profitable than single-channel customers, marketers need to support their e-mail campaigns with a complete multimedia strategy. Those that don't will lose out on incremental opportunities and miss the chance to reach customers at times when they're ready to buy.

According to Scott St. Mary, vice president of customer relationship management at Carat Fusion, one financial services company gets a "15 percent increase in response when e-mail is sent in advance of a direct mail package to an existing customer list, and a 25 to 30 percent lift when an e-mail is sent in advance of a phone call from a sales rep."

Meanwhile, according to Archana Deshmukh, partner and group director for MEC Interaction, her agency was able to prevent a weakening e-mail response from getting worse and even turn it into a lift, simply by taking siloed e-mail campaigns that were run by disparate divisions of the same company and creating a single integrated program that staggered mailings. The goal was to prevent customer wearout.

To turn siloed e-mail campaigns into a fully integrated customer strategy and improve overall campaign response, Deshmukh suggests first determining which channels work best with e-mail, then choosing metrics for tracking, and determining the objectives the e-mail program needs to achieve.

The e-mail component should then be paired with other media that have the same goals. She also recommends that companies drop their brand media first, and have direct marketing programs follow a few weeks later. "The awareness softens the marketplace and by the time [consumers] get the hard sell, they're more apt to be aware of your message so your e-mail doesn't have to do double work."

To get the best end result, St. Mary says, it's critical to track return on investment (ROI) for each channel independently at the start. "It helps us understand the allowable investment, or what we can afford to spend, by asking, What is this channel best at? What are its efficiencies? How can I acquire x number of customers, manage my investment mix, and optimize it, so that I'm not spending too much on TV and not enough on converting prospects?"

This is particularly important with e-mail, he says, because while it's a relatively inexpensive channel, it's also time-consuming and labor-intensive. If St. Mary finds a low allowable cost, he uses e-mail to either drive a better response or drive down the cost of a particular objective  something Carat couldn't do if it didn't know the ROI of e-mail alone.

While different agencies have their own techniques, one thing experts agree on is that integrating a multichannel campaign is less about technology and more about people skills  specifically, communications.

"There are different timelines for creative and for when media are available," says Marion Z Murphy, senior partner and director of direct marketing for Mindshare Interaction. "Often we're dealing with different creative agencies for different elements. There's a lot of coordination among people who aren't necessarily working in sister companies, and that can be a challenge.

Technology can make a difference, particularly when you have good templates to work with, such as a dashboard, Deshmukh says. "A dashboard is helpful because it lets you easily look at your campaign across channels and metrics. It includes every metric and every conversion rate for each channel."

Murphy also suggests looking to media vendors for integrated programs. A cable TV channel will have a magazine, a Web site, and an e-mail list, and will provide a packaged program along with integrated metrics and campaign support. 

 

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