• by Seana Mulcahy , July 17, 2006

As a marketer or advertiser, you most likely subscribe to the mantra, "Right message. Right time. Right place." When it comes to e-mail marketing, why are many of you still taking the load-and-blast approach?

I first heard this term from Loren McDonald when he was vice president of marketing at Email Labs. It made me chuckle, since it was all too familiar.

E-mail marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it practice. Why not customize and segment e-mails to make them more relevant? For instance, simply personalizing a subject line could make all the difference in your open and conversion rates.

I've purchased flowers from both 1800flowers.com and FTD.com. Both ping me with offers of 10 to 15 percent off my next purchase. It may not seem like a lot, but as a consumer I go for it quite often. Both include my name in the subject line from time to time. Several times I've gotten e-mails reminding me of a specific event I bought flowers for in the past. Not only are the e-mails personalized, I'm a click away from viewing my past purchases. I can see what I bought my aunt for her birthday last year.

I think the travel industry gets it, too. I've opted in to American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Site 59, Orbitz and Expedia. I've customized my preferences for travel on each site and requested to receive e-mail. The airlines are fairly generic with its subject lines. However, they often include my local airport or most traveled destinations. The others (Orbitz, Expedia and Site 59) are on the money. Just about every e-mail I have received is relevant to me. They often include my name, my local airport or frequent destinations in the subject lines. Why wouldn't I open the message?

These e-mail tactics work since they appeal to relevant moments in my life. So, you see, it is a lot more than demographics and psychographics in e-mail marketing. Doing data analysis is necessary, of course. However, most marketers and advertisers don't scratch below the surface of the data. Many look at open rates and conversion rates. To me, that is the necessary minimum.

Let's face it, you have the individual's e-mail address. You can see where the person is from (by IP address and/or zip), what day of the week and time of day he tends to read his e-mail, what his purchase behavior has been... the list goes on.

Many studies have shown that personalizing and segmenting e-mails help to increase response rates. According to JupiterResearch, 8o percent of e-mail marketers that utilize segmentation tactics achieve between 1 percent and 3 percent higher conversion rates.

JupiterResearch estimates that approximately 24 percent of e-mail marketers conduct broadcast e-mail campaigns. Most marketers (65 percent) implement what JupiterResearch calls quasi-personalized, segmented campaigns. Only the most sophisticated, top 11 percent of marketers, conduct truly targeted e-mail programs.

It is critical to offer consumers preferences when subscribing to your e-mails. At a minimum, you should let users elect how often they'd like to receive e-mails, and provide a clear opt-out and an easy way for consumers to edit their preferences.

In a company press release, Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop, divides e-mail marketers into three groups. The first level treats every recipient the same with blast campaigns. The second level breaks recipients into groups, using basic segmentation tactics and limited dynamic content.

"The highest level of e-mail sophistication goes beyond blasting and even beyond segmentation," Nussey says. "Level three e-mail programs treat every recipient as a unique individual using triggered lifecycle campaigns to improve relevance.

"Yet companies should recognize that relevant, triggered e-mails deliver three to nine times the revenue of broadcast e-mails," Nussey adds.

So how do you market to e-mail recipients beyond blasting? Post to the Spin blog.