From my working life...

When less equals More
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM , BY MICHELLE EICHNER AND LEN SHNEYDER

Change how you're acquiring customers

The goals of those involved in acquisition are often at odds with today's e-mail reality. When success is measured on the number of new registrants and cost per registrant, marketers often rely on tactics that pose substantial risks to the health and well being of core customer communications. This is because they are likely to be adding names that have no real interest in receiving your ongoing e-mails.

Again, more is not better! One such tactic is incentive-based — the heavy use of promotions and sweepstakes to quickly and inexpensively acquire new names for your database. Folks sign up for the sweepstakes and then immediately unsubscribe or, worse yet, complain tht you are spamming them. Remember, at ISPs such as AOL if a tiny fraction of your customers complain you are spamming them, you risk having all your mail blocked (yes — that means all mail — including the mail to your active and engaged customers!).

Another tactic is what we call the “hidden-agenda method.” You may make a compelling benefit such as access to key information on your Website contingent, upon the person providing you their e-mail address.

In many cases, the customer may want access to your site, but has no interest in ongoing e-mails — so to accomplish this, he or she provides a fake address. As a result, your bad-address rate spikes for newly acquired names, and you once again risk having all mail blocked.

E-mail appends, unqualified co-registration programs, the list goes on — but the risks to your good mailing reputation cannot be ignored and should be measured. Only then can the potential impact be quantified and fully understood. Today, clarity is king. More names is definitively not better, and you should always provide a clear, unencumbered, and conspicuous opt-in to your ongoing e-mail communications.

Change what you're sending your customers

Not every customer should get the exact same thing. This becomes even more true over the course of their relationship with you. Your customers are unique individuals; providing relevant and personalized content will inspire and motivate them to visit your site and hopefully purchase your products and services.

Leverage the power of e-mail! Affordable e-mail technology allows you to provide a truly one-to-one message based on three main data sources: who they are (age, gender, geographic location, job type etc.), what they want (stated preferences at e-mail capture) and what they do (interests you ascertain by tracking what they click on — including e-mail and Web).

But too little consideration is given to the fact that your customers' interests evolve over time. The end result is that your customers, bored with your content and annoyed by the frequency of your mailings, will unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam. Therefore, it is critical that you do not forget to revisit your segmentation strategy continuously over the course of the customer lifecycle.

Fine tune the frequency of your communications

Not every customer needs — or wants — to get an e-mail every single time you send one out. Mail smarter and to the right people. As we've discussed, there's an inherent danger in sending too much mail. Do not overestimate your customers' appetite for your e-mails — you don't want to burn out the new subscribers and you don't want to anger older ones who may have forgotten how or why they wound up on your list.

Sending friendly and gentle reminders requesting profile updates, and those such as “We haven't heard from you in a while, would you like to remain on our list?” are excellent tactics and provide a personal touch.

Another practical approach: Do not mail everyone at the same time. Send your most active names first and allow those to deliver. Then create a separate and relevant e-mail to your least active names and send that at least a full day after you've delivered your bread and butter. This may also have an added benefit of smoothing Web traffic and fulfillment.

And last but not least, remember: Although every name on your list represents incremental revenue, those names just as easily represent exponentially greater amounts of lost revenue because they can impact the delivery of your entire campaign. This is why less is truly more when it comes to e-mail marketing.

Michelle Eichner is chief operating officer/vice president of client development and Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications for Pivotal Veracity, an e-mail deliverability service provider.

Between a rock and a hard place

A client e-mails all opt-in names weekly (excluding those who have unsubscribed, bounced, or generated a spam complaint). In late 2006, Comcast blocked its IPs, preventing the client from being able to deliver any e-mail to Comcast. We contacted Comcast to ask why the client's e-mails were being blocked, and learned Comcast's filter (Brightmail) reported X% of this client's mail as spam. Based on a request from us, Comcast removed the block and the client continued mailing without changing its practices.

Business continued as usual, but so did the specter of less equals more. The client mailed its entire house file again and triggered Comcast's filters again. We again had the block lifted. But this quickly became less than ideal for the mailer, Pivotal Veracity, and Comcast; something had to be done.

The mailer's first tactic was to e-mail only subscribers with any post-signup activity, such as clicks or purchases, regardless of how long ago. Unfortunately, this also resulted in Comcast blocking the mail as in previous campaigns. The implication: Just because someone was engaged at one time does not mean they are still engaged and, as many folks do, they used the report-as-spam button to get off the list.

Rather desperate now, the mailer decided to test e-mailing only to Comcast addresses that had made a purchase; a dramatic measure but one with dramatic results. Since employing a Comcast mail strategy that includes buyers only, this client has received consistent 100% inbox delivery.

Older, inactive users were complaining, which caused the entire e-mail to be blocked by Comcast. Although the inactive names as a segment were producing incremental revenue as a small fraction purchased, the effect of sending e-mails to these users actually resulted in a net loss of revenue because it affected the ability to mail any e-mails to Comcast.

By taking proactive measures, the client has been able to successfully deliver to the inbox across all subsequent campaigns.
— ME/LS