Commentary

Complex E-mail Programs Or Simple Truths?

As the saying goes, "you are a product of your looking glass." Some are broad and full of hope and ideas, some are so narrow that you can't see the trees for the forest. I've crafted this column to tell you a short story and a view into how I work with my teams. As one of my colleagues eloquently said, "Many thought leaders mislead marketers into believing the statistics are really a reflection of themselves, when in fact they are a 'perfect storm' compiled to impress the many." That's a bit dark, but not far from the truth.

Recently in a "Lunch and Learn," meeting, I had colleagues ask the questions I'm sure many of you are trying to solve everyday. What subject lines work well? When is it appropriate to change from direct response to more general brand or lifestyle messaging? What is best practice for e-mail creative? When should we use templates and how do we produce them without losing creativity? How do you use personalization?

While I had a myriad of best practices, statistics and ideas to answer these questions, I couldn't help but try to reshape how the questioners looked at these topics. They wanted to improve their client's program, and didn't seem to be in a position to make the changes they felt they needed. So, I used a story about a former client to try to help them understand it isn't about the answer to these questions; it's about a different method of working with the client to understand what the channel is really doing for their business.

advertisement

advertisement

The story goes like this. There was a retailer who sold items through catalog and e-mail. E-mail was then an emerging channel, and their program was in its infancy: no segmentation, terrible creative, no list management or controls, and barely able to test subject lines. Their programs were relegated to offer strategies driven by the product teams.

They agreed to allow us to pilot a performance improvement program whereby we'd use our best practices and technologies to build the foundation for the next generation of their program. We did just about everything you could think of: sophisticated targeting, dynamic content, RFM analysis; we threw in seasonal trends and then every deliverability and e-mail tactic there was. The e-mail looked beautiful and it was as optimized as you could get, yet ... we barely moved the needle.

What makes this story ironic and relevant to my topic is not that the tactics didn't make an impact. We came in with a broad view of solving the problem, yet found that there was only so much this client could do through the e-mail channel to merchandise, categorize interests and build relationships. Only a few e-mail variables seem to move the numbers from a financial perspective: timing and frequency. This retailer's customers were so conditioned to catalogs and making decisions through these events, that you didn't have to beautify them or make them contextual to products they were interested in--you just needed to make sure it got there, and got there often.

How did this story help our team? It helped them understand how to look for signs around how e-mail supports the relationship model without spending all our client's money. In this case, we realized these consumers would not forward e-mails to friends, weren't interested in category-based content and weren't interested in managing subscriptions to other lifestyle content, They weren't really interested in visiting the site for anything but browsing and buying--at least from a revenue perspective. There was no pattern around behavior.

So, before I retire from e-mail marketing and write it off as a simple person's medium, let me end with this. I am a true believer in marketing automation, targeting and being contextual, but I'm also about delivering results and understanding how consumers behave and use e-mail to make decisions in their lives. From how they connect with their "glocalized" network to how they make or influence purchase decisions, brands need to be real about the level of consumer involvement and the role of e-mail in this process. Sometimes it is a simple process of notification, sometimes it's contextual and relevant, and sometimes no one's home. Strategy doesn't start with creative; it starts with understanding your customer.

Next story loading loading..