Chris Baggott's Email Marketing Best Practices

E-Mail Summit: Relevancy Sparks Conversion, Retention

E-Mail Summit: Relevancy Sparks Conversion, Retention July 22, 2005 By: Chantal Todé Senior Editor ctode@dmnews.com NEW YORK -- E-mail communication between companies and consumers or other businesses increasingly is about serving the needs of the recipient rather than selling, according to Joel Book, ExactTarget's director of e-marketing strategy. Book moderated the New York edition of ExactTarget's eMarketing Excellence Summit, held yesterday at the Sofitel Hotel. "E-mail works best when it's personal and relevant. This sounds like common sense, but we see too much batch and blast," Book said, adding that marketers often don't take the time to understand their customers' needs. However, when they do take the time, e-mail can be powerful in driving customer conversion and retention. Its limitations are in acquisition of new customers: Leave that to brand marketing, Book said. (read more here...) Advertisement:  Go here to learn more about ExactTarget City Tours coming to your area.

Email Marketers Wanted

I have more opportunities for Email Marketers.  Not with ExactTarget, but for some of our clients. These are great opportunities.

Several clients have sent us requests for recommendations on seasoned Email Marketers looking for new opportunities.  All of these positions require at least 3 years marketing experience (some more) with a focus on email strategy development and execution.  If you are interested in learning more, send an email and resume to recruiting@exacttarget.com with “Email Marketers Wanted” in the subject line.

Response to ClickZ article

The following is a response I wrote to an article in ClickZ titled E-Mail vs. E-Newsletters: Is There a Difference?  by Jeanniey Mullen who I read a lot.

You bring up a great point.  I'm really moving against the concept of a "Newsletter".   First it is a relic of the print world. Second, relevance is driven not only by content, but also by timing.  Just because it's the second Tuesday of the month does not automatically mean that you have something important or 'relevant' to say to me.

We as email marketers have got to get to the point where we are respectful of our subscriber relationships and not waste the touch.  Talk when you have something to say that is of value to the subscriber.  Otherwise don’t.

Sam Walton's Vision & Data Driven Marketing

Thanks to Jon Talbot and Michael Wexler for pointing out that the Marine story was from the June 27th, 2005 Fortune Magazine.

Another page I tore out of that issue was a blurb about Sam Walton.   They talked about the epic decision he made in 1983 to spend $24 million on the first retail satellite system.  (the internet as we know it was of course more than 10 years away)

According to this, Mr. Walton made this bet for two reasons that we should all take to heart:

1) He wanted a data driven business. (left brain)
2) He wanted desperately to maintain a human touch and face with the entire enterprise.

Today this technology is almost free, yet isn’t it shocking that most organizations still don’t adhere to these two simple lessons?

Data Inertia

One of the problems with data is that sometimes it can cloud or postpone decisions.  There is always going to be more data, there will always be opportunity to analyze data in a different way.

Sometimes data can be the enemy of what is perhaps the most important marketing tool….speed.

I saw an article about how the Marines battle data inertia that I thought I’d share here. (I apologize for not properly attributing this, but I’ve forgotten where I saw the story)

The Marine Corps thinks about the 70% solution.  If you have 70% of the information, have done 70% of the analysis, and feel 70% confident, then move.

The logic is simple: A less than ideal action, swiftly executed, stands a chance of success, whereas no action stands no chance.  The worst decision is to make no decision at all.

Fortunately, in Marketing these are not life and death decisions. We have a constant influx of data and the ability to react quickly and make changes on the fly.  If we make a mistake….well we can try again tomorrow.

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Bill Gates Comments on Email

There is a great interview in Fortune with Bill Gates & Ray Ozzie where they talk about Email Hell.  (you can read it here…)

My favorite part of the dialog is this one:

Question:  Will we get to a point when e-mail seems as quaint as letter writing does to us today?

Gates: No. There are communications you want to target to a small set of people, and you want them to know you're putting your credibility behind saying, "Please pay attention to this right now."

How perfect of a statement is this?  Bill is telling us that email isn’t for blasting, it’s for targeting specific relevant messages to select groups of people.  I really like the sentement behind: "It is putting your personal credibility on the line."

Who would blast if they thought like this?

This is the core lesson for all Email Marketers.  Think about what you want to say and who you want to say it to.  The audience is people that you have, or want to have, a real relationship with.

Advertisement:  Go here to learn more about ExactTarget email automation solutions

Bogus Email Addresses

This question was submitted over the weekend:

...I have a question for you. From your experience - how / where is the best place in the process to filter out bogus email addresses?

There are two ways to solve for this.  The first is technology.  Makes sure your email system has the ability to filter out SPAM Traps and other email addresses that appear to be bogus.   (Ihateyou@spam.com)  might be one example.   Don’t laugh, this happens all the time.   People fill out forms and for a variety of reasons (usually, because the don’t believe that you will provide them anything worthwhile via email) enter in these bogus addresses.   Filtering is a good place to start, but it is not the final step.

We are staunch advocates of a confirmed opt it.   Someone fills out your form; best practices dictate that you immediately send them a confirmation email.   If it bounces, or the person doesn’t respond then you know it’s bogus without having to contaminate your overall list.   

Some will argue that this will affect overall list size…and it will.   But remember your goal, it’s not about the size of your list it’s about the quality of your relationships.