• by editor , David Baker , June 6, 2011

Trying to optimize your open rate?  Optimize the time of day, or day-of-the week?  Increase the reach?  Extend the engagement of your email audience? Optimize to the mobile device?     What percentage of your database is viewing email on the mobile device today?  

I've been skeptical of day-part optimization of email, for the same reasons that testing has been ineffective at scale: not many can prove a statistical variance in the value for the effort.  The consumer is entering a new era of time and place shifting, yet it goes further with device and channel shifting.    The value of a time-optimized email is that you infer some exposure value that assumes the consumer is prepared to receive a brand message and take some form or action. 

Shift -- Trends:  

Time-Shifting:   Time-optimized email will be less useful as a longitudinal measurement index. Real time is for real-time value (notifications, primarily).   We must recognize that the consumer is less predictable now more than ever.   Focusing your time on day-part timing is not a scalable value when done in a longitudinal manner.  With time-shifting, it will be critical to be consistent with your timing so the highly engaged audience can predict you, rather than you trying to optimize to a poorly self managed consumer of today.  

I don't foresee a great many questions about "industry" time of week shifts in consumer email. I believe we'll see a much more granular view of behavioral patterns by "email type" that will help us form conclusions on timing for portfolio communications.   Combine time-shifting with place- and device-shifting, and we have a real engagement challenge that will only be solved with rich analytics and a multifunctional view of the consumer. 

Place-Shifting:  Your segmentation strategy will need to evolve to truly map engagement patterns to consumption patterns.  Where do subscribers consume the email?  Are they in buying mode?  Viewing mode?  Burn mode? (I also call this boredom mode, using idle waiting time to triage their device) .  I think we will learn a lot from the "daily deals" business.  Geo-targeting will bring about a new contextual interest and engagement pattern that shows where the buyer is on the ready-to-buy scale, but also combine that with consumption patterns.  With Amazon and Google all getting in the game, true time and place optimized experiences will evolve as consumer patterns shift and become local.  This will be essential for brands that have local presence.   

Device-Shifting:  Some have tried to optimize email to the mobile the viewing window.   This is very difficult to do at scale.  It's at most 20%-30% of your viewership, likely not persistent (meaning they open some on device and some on computer/laptop and sometimes both).  Some brands will default to this over time, yet I don't think it's there yet.  I don't believe the conversion patterns drive changing the experience at least for direct response messaging from today's creative to mobile only email viewing.  

For other portfolio messaging, it may be highly valuable to simplify the messaging experience.  Apply my change principle to this: if the value is not at scale, it's likely not worth testing and putting time into this. It's not pervasive enough yet to change operational procedures.  I need to see more research to change this opinion.  

Channel Conversion Shift:  We've seen many major brands see a channel shift in conversion.   This is happening across the board.  For those with poor alignment of channels, email may seem under attack and less effective.  For those with stronger alliance of multichannel, you will see the shifts and embrace the consumers change in patterns and how they are adapting to your new mobile presence, mobile app experience, portfolio messaging strategy, and see that search will continue to hog share of conversion from many.   The email channel will remain a constant, yet we have to recognize the stacking effect and prioritize attribution so all channels are rewarded for connecting the experiences. 

I believe in direct accountability and a natural competition between channels, yet the connected experience is evolving.  It takes more than one brand interaction to convert a sale, and our models should reflect this.