Chris Baggott's Email Marketing Best Practices

More about the 'From' side of One to One Marketing

I’m going to spend the next couple of posts talking about the top email trends I predicated for 2005.   

Last week, I saw an article questioning some of my predictions. Of course the greatest thing about blogsphere (and perhaps the reason it exists at all) is the ability to foster intelligent and professional debate.

In this case, the challenge came from my assertion regarding the “Power of the ‘From’ address.”   My contention is that in a one-to-one world, email is a great way to finally break out of the “institution-to-many” mindset that is the legacy of 100 years of Mass Marketing.

Originally I was going to write about the statistics of opens and click-throughs, etc… Instead I’m choosing to write about Ron Richey.

First, you can follow this link to see the article challenging my assertions.  The basic pushback came from the author’s idea that people would rather relate to a known “Brand”.

So now back to Ron.  Ron lives in my town, and I know him enough to say “hi.”  Our paths cross because his wife Paula is a  parochial school youth director, his daughter babysat for us a few years ago, and his son just got a job in the athletic department of Notre Dame.  (Congratulations)

Ron is a real live human being, whom I’m inclined to trust and admire.   I think he is a good person.  Ron is also the manager of a conveniently located Walgreens. 

Walgreens, of course, is a well respected brand that I can trust to take care of all my pharma needs, offer a wide range of reasonably priced personal hygiene products, and will even develop my digital photos while I wait.

Across the road is a CVS.  In addition to an equally convenient location, I perceive CVS to be equal in every other measure.  Same drugs, same razor blades, same photo lab, same peanut M&M’s.

Do I ever shop there?  Of course not.  When the brand is equal (and most are) the difference is the people.  Everyone says their people are great, but other than mass oriented generalities, how do you prove it? 

This is the magic opportunity available only with email.   Everything I know about Ron can be told in an email. And when I talk about the “from” side, I’m not just talking about the physical from address, but rather the entire topic and feel of the email.   

Neither CVS or Walgreens are my clients.  I’ve never seen an email from either of them (in spite of holding a loyalty card) and have no idea who their ESP's are. 

But the great thing is that they have all the data they need to build a true one-to-one relationship with me.  They know where I live and what my purchase data is, which helps them control the right side of the one-to-one relationship (the right side refers to the relevant content, for those just tuning in)

It also helps with the left side, which is the side that shows us the real human being behind the brand.   We humans love humans.  Can you imagine if my Walgreens email came from Ron and included a short story about how proud he was of his son’s accomplishment in landing a position in Notre Dame?  Remember when a drug store and the pharmacist was part of a community…before it became a faceless brand?

Does anyone really doubt that we all would begin to feel more affinity to Ron and Walgreens the better we got to know him? 

2005 Best Email Predictions

Sorry for the delay, I took my family to Vail last week.  Very fun....

ESP’s

This is a trend that really accelerated in 2004 and will come to dominate in 2005.  Email is not longer about a listserv that “blasts” email.   Most organizations don’t (and shouldn’t) have the resources in house to manage the constantly changing complexities of email marketing software.   As “On Demand” software of all kinds continues to become the prevalent business model for software you will see Email as the way that most organizations “test the waters”.

Another 2005 Best Practice

Control & Compliance

Email is probably the least controlled medium in most organizations.   As one CEO told me:  “We have more control over Post Cards than we do over Email!”

This is changing and will accelerate going into 2005.   Historically, different departments made their own email decisions with regard to email marketing.   Customer service worked off their own system and rules, order confirmation, individual salespeople…it’s easy to see how this is getting out of control in many large organizations.   And unlike other 2005 trends, this one absolutely affects larger organizations more than smaller.

In 2005 organizations are faced with three significant drivers that are forcing consistent control and compliance.

1.       Point one is the goal for a central view of the customer.   As email becomes more prevalent within an organization it is getting quite common for customers to get potentially “lots” of unrelated email from the same organization.   What we’ll see is a lot more intelligence towards batching relevant communications to clients.   Order confirmations for example are very time sensitive where as an offer might not be.  Rather than send two, combine into one.  Simple example, but we will be seeing a lot more intelligence around email control.

2.       Point two is the whole area of email liability.   Companies are recognizing not just the issues surrounding SPAM, but also legal liability for content in general.  A health care might not be allowed to ever us the word “cure”.   How can you be sure that somewhere in your organization an email isn’t going out that you would prefer didn’t?  Policy isn’t enough.  Content management systems as an integrated part of email will become a critical component to any system.

Deliverability is also dependent on Compliance.   With emails coming from every corner of an organization it is becoming mission critical that systems are in place to monitor compliance with lists, bounces, filters and everything else associated with managing blacklists complying with the rules of various ISP white lists.  No organization can afford to appear on a blacklist that might affect the entire enterprise because of the irresponsible action of perhaps one person or department

More 2005 Best Practices

The “From” Side

The ‘From’ address is becoming the most important factor determining the success of your email program.   If we think about our goal of relevancy and growing the relationship it only makes sense.  Who do you want to have a relationship with?  An Institution?

Relationships happen between people..end of story.    Most organizations invest a ton in their human capital.   The people who face your customers: Owners, Salespeople, managers, Customer Service….and then these relationship owners are ignored when it comes to marketing.  The fastest way to build a relationship between your prospects/customers and your company is to engage them with a human being. 

This is right out of Zig Ziglar from the past 50 years…..people buy from people.  The problem is we haven’t had tools to facilitate this.   Email is the perfect tool and you will see a lot more email coming “from” Salespeople, Customer Service Reps, Store Managers or Franchise Owners in 2005 than ever before.  These will include pictures, personal notes based on prior engagement with working replies…just like a real relationships. :-)

Much of this email will be automated as we discussed above with “relationship owner” entered as another data field.

2005 Best Email Predictions VI

Marketing Democracy

To expand on the points made yesterday.  All of this breaks a long-time reality that good marketing required big budgets. 

Email is the great marketing equalizer.   A local Pizza chain like La Rosa’s in Cinncinatti can out-market a national powerhouse like Domino’s when it comes to email (read case study). 

Now who has the advantage in the marketplace?   The company that can drive the better relationship.   

The reality is that with the cost of data going down and the inherent affordability of email; the smaller business might now actually have an advantage when it comes to relationship marketing.

2005 Best Email Predictions V

Automated Email

Automated Email can also be referred to as ‘Event Driven Email” and it comes from data integration and a good understanding of your individual customers or subscribers.   An event can be anything to trigger a relevant communication.

If an item goes on sale that is right for me, just automatically send me an email. Don’t waste a ‘touch’ to your entire database.   We have a client that does concert promotion email.   I get email on when there is a match between venues I like and genre of music or specific musicians that the database thinks I’ll be interested in.  Some months I might get three or more emails and then other months I might not get any.

(Let me make a point here.  None of this marketing is the exclusive domain of big marketing departments.   The company referenced probably does less than $1mm in revenue….Ticketmaster just sent me an email inviting me to an Aaron Carter concert…..obviously size has nothing to do with the ability to do good marketing)

Confirmations, Exclusives, Unique Opportunities, Open Rates….all can be ‘events’ that trigger relevant email and we will be seeing a lot more of this as we roll through 2005.

2005 Best Email Predictions IV

Integration

Database Marketing drives relevance.  Data integration drives database marketing.    Email marketers will move towards unfettered access to marketing data with stronger and more invisible integration between their email systems and their other marketing technology solutions.

We are already seeing this with web analytics and crm integration.   Integration will continue to evolve into POS, MRM and just about every other corner of the good marketers data arsenal.

At the end of the day, data hasn’t historically been the problem for marketers.  The problem is executing on that data.  For the reasons mentioned above email is uniquely positioned to take data and execute towards the level of relationship marketing that most have only dreamed of.

2005 Best Email Predictions III

Ease of Use

To coin a phrase from Scott McNealy:   Software is the UI.    As marketers desire to do more with their email, the ease of use of their tools becomes very important.  If marketers have to reach out to technology resources every time they want to change a content rule or test a concept; guess what? they are going to do a lot less of this kind of activity and won’t market to their full potential.

Batch & Blast is the default because marketers haven’t had the tools to do sophisticated email marketing without engaging a legion of tech and professional service resources.   Trends for 2005 will absolutely drive the value of Easy and intuitive User Interfaces.

2005 Best Email Predictions II

Frequency

Talking to me like an individual can start with how frequently you communicate with me.  I’m questioned all the time about how frequently our clients should email.   People shouldn’t be batched based on a monthly, weekly schedule.  That is a relic of the print world where cost constraints and events dictated the marketing or “campaign” schedule.   Relationships are not “campaigns” they are a commutation of ‘experiences’ and two way communications between people.

Email gives us the power to change the relationship paradigm a let the customers’ requests and actual behavior dictate how and when you reach out to me.  There will be occasions where it is appropriate to talk to me three times a month and then not talk to me for three months.   

2005 Best Email Predictions I

Relevance

The number one email trend in 2005 is going to be relevance.  For good marketers we will see the final and well deserved demise of Batch & Blast and to some extent the move away from segmentation.   Marketers are beginning to appreciate the unique value proposition of email in building relationships.  While this has been a stated goal for years, execution in reality followed the historic mass marketing approach.

The reality of 2005 is that your completion is not just the business similar to yours, but also the 100+ other emails in my inbox.   

We hear a lot of talk about animation and video in emails to drive response…but that is just old fashioned mass marketing looking for a new outlet.

If you want a relationship with me in 2005 you better talk to me like you know me and with respect for what make me a unique relationship to you.   You better be relevant to me…not 75% of your target market….relevant to me alone.

The next trends will all support this one.