• by Des Cahill , August 21, 2008

A soft economy brings some inbox solutions

Nothing focuses a marketing strategy quite like a recession. It becomes more difficult to bring customers from awareness to the buying decision, and marketing budgets are the first to be downsized. As consumer confidence softens, organizations look for strategies that maximize returns on direct marketing investments.

While organizations face a growing number of online threats, a recent study by research firm Ipsos found that 67 percent of consumers continue to prefer e-mail as their primary communications channel for business interactions. The same research showed that 65 percent of consumers believe that e-mail will still be their communications channel of choice in five years. A second study, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, revealed that customer empowerment through technology will have the greatest impact on business processes, and that e-mail will solidify its place as the communications channel most important to businesses over that same five-year span.

Because of its importance among primary communications channels, and given its proven ability to convert prospects into customers, e-mail must be a primary focus of any reputation management strategy that hopes to build greater confidence with economically sensitive target audiences.

In order not to get lost in the flood of spam and other illegitimate online activities, businesses must implement e-mail reputation best practices that deliver improved inbox delivery rates, response rates, Web site traffic conversion rates and the ability to partner with other organizations online.

Make a commitment to high e-mail sending standards. Organizations need to develop standards that exceed the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which set basic standards for commercial e-mail. This requires not only guiding the company's own e-mail marketing, but also scrutinizing the behavior of business partners.

Inculcate e-mail reputation throughout the organization. Any corporate initiative involving reputation management must have an impact across an organization, and that means teams need to buy in and be held accountable. To already highly accountable sales teams, standards could limit short-term potential revenues. The value of long-term e-mail reputation must be communicated.

Comply with e-mail reputation management standards. Managing the volume of online activity requires the establishment of an organizing structure and work flow to review all online content before it is e-mailed or otherwise made public.

Use e-mail reputation management tools that track compliance and deliverability. Organizations need to be able to see what is happening with their day-to-day campaigns so they can decide what they are doing right and what needs to be adjusted. Preferably, organizations will have a view into how their partners are operating so there is no unforeseen damage to the brand, even indirectly.

Publishers Clearing House, known for its sweepstakes, represents what can be accomplished by making these commitments. PCH delivers multiple millions of e-mails each year and consistently achieves an industry-leading e-mail open rate of 22 to 27 percent -- an extremely high rate for a large list (the industry average is 10 to 12 percent). A long-term approach to customer relationship-building has customers being treated so well, says PCH executive Sal Tripi, that "when our e-mails are absent, customers ask about it."

E-mail reputation management using these best practices is critical to online businesses, and now is the best time to get up to speed, especially as consumer spending tightens. The practices of PCH and others demonstrate impressive results for marketing managers looking to get the biggest bang for their buck in a time of shrinking marketing budgets.

Des Cahill is the CEO of Habeas, a leader in e-mail compliance and reputation management services.