Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket

46 E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS DM News • E-Mail Marketing Guide 2007
your cost per conversion. Considering that the non-actionable lead
rate can range anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent, the $35/M
cost for this service is a small price to pay for the efficiencies of
securing a more qualified lead file.
E-mail deliverability Consider licensing an ASP solution instead
of in-house distribution of e-mail. ASP providers can help increase
the deliverability as well as consistency and regulatory compliance
of your e-mails.
Conversion optimization Send a custom auto-response e-mail
within seconds of lead data receipt that includes personalized
dynamic content based on triggers included in the lead form such
as geography, loan amount (e.g.; mortgage industry), etc. Make
sure the e-mail is substantive and effectively describes the next
steps in the process.
Frequency Frequent communication plays a significant role in
taking a prospect from awareness to action. We suggest formulating
a cohesive communication strategy in the form of a series of e-mails
to optimize lead conversion. Typically, a string of six e-mails over a
two-to-three week period with cohesive messaging reinforces your
desire for their business without appearing intrusive. You may also
test an “increasing” offer strategy in subsequent e-mails.
Ongoing lead cultivation Enact detailed tracking to evaluate
opens and clicks so you can use the data to improve your call center
contact strategy. The idea is to treat e-mail responders who
have not converted as a greater priority within your predictive
dialing model for more aggressive ongoing communication.
In summary, direct marketers need to apply an integrated
approach to maximize conversion from their lead-generation referrals.
When used effectively, e-mail is a medium that can deliver
the direct conversion, but also provide support to OBTM and
other conversion channels.
Don’t let your leads slip into the hands of you competitors —
beat them to the phones with an effective e-mail strategy.
Clay Gillespie is EVP of client services and Timothy Daly is SVP of
interactive services at UnReal Marketing. They can be reached at
clay.gillespie@unrealmarketing.com and timothy.daly@unrealmarketing.com.
Integrating e-mail with
traditional marketing
methods
BY DOUG MARSHALL
It is an unfortunate reality that, in many organizations, marketing
is broken down in silos, and even though a company’s message
may be consistent from one channel to another, the channels do
little to help one another.
Take e-mail, a function that is often treated as a separate channel
even though it is proven to improve the performance of other traditional
marketing methods.
With very little effort, smart marketers can use e-mail to improve
the ROI of direct mail and more accurately target print, broadcast
and online messages. On the flip side, marketers can leverage existing
customer touch points to improve e-mail marketing programs.
Supporting direct mail One example of how e-mail can be used
to support traditional marketing methods is in conjunction with
direct mail.
ESSENTIAL GUIDE
If you are a company that depends primarily on offline purchases,
you can improve direct mail conversions by using e-mail before
a drop. By sending an e-mail message in advance of a direct mail
drop, you can prepare your audience in a way that will increase
their recognition of — and place a higher value on — your catalog,
coupon or brochure.
As with any e-mail, you want to make sure that the calls to
action are clear and above the
fold. It’s also important when
using e-mail to bolster other
media to show some visual representation
of that media in the
form of an icon, inset or callout.
Data-level integration
Companies can target print,
broadcast and online messages
based on any number of criteria,
but it can be difficult to collect the
data necessary to segment your
Doug Marshall
Responsys
constituents.
One way to make it easier is to
go slowly. Constituents are usual-
ly willing to offer up information in small amounts at first. If you
use this little bit of data in a trustworthy manner, they may consider
giving you more. E-mail is a great way to implement this technique
of progressive profiling.
If you have access to data modeling and Web analytics applications,
you can overlay that data to infer a great deal more about your
constituents, and even use it for cross-selling, among other purposes.
Helping out e-mail My recommendation to every company that
engages in e-mail marketing is to identify every touch point your
company has with constituents — customer service, technical support,
brick and mortar points-of-sale, package inserts, direct mail,
online shopping carts, theater ads, billboards, radio, banner ads,
sweepstakes, affiliates, co-registrations, search engines, radio, television,
etc. — and turn them into e-mail address collection channels.
By sending e-mail messages in conjunction with traditional marketing
messages, you can increase responsiveness. By collecting
e-mail addresses at every turn, your traditional marketing methods
can extend the reach of your e-mail programs. It’s a win-win
proposition. And with a little creative thought, it can be a highly
profitable one.
Doug Marshall is senior manager of service solutions and operations at
Responsys. He can be reached at dmarshall@responsys.com.