The Real Opportunity of Email Marketing

There is a good article in Direct Marketing News Called "With Email, One Size Does Not Fit All". It opens with recommending that simply personalizing email will make a difference to your unsubscribes and more improtant with your consumer engagement.

"Designing one-size-fits-all email campaigns may be easier than crafting tailored messages. But not necessarily more effective. According to The 2013 Digital Marketer benchmark and trend report by Experian Marketing Services, 70% of brands surveyed admit that they do not personalize the email messages sent to their subscribers. However, adding that personal touch can truly pay off, as triggered emails with personalized subject lines generated a 29.2% open rate compared to those without personalization (23.3%)." We think it's the entry level of using email marketing.

The mass marketing mentality we all grew up with is driving our strategies for email marketing.

Most brands think it is about quantity. Email marketing is about the quality of the list - not the quantity. A million names with a 19% open rate is really only 190,000 list. If someone opts-in and never even opens one of your communications, why have them on your list? Would it not be better for all concerned - the brand and the recipient, if the ime and effort was spent finding out more about the 190,000 engaged recipent's likes and dislikes, rather than trying to add more names to the opt-in list?

Without a doubt there is still a role for mass media advertising and promotion. Email is not the right tool. Email is for customers (helping serve their true needs will create more sales) and for "near-customers" - people who are enough of a BRAND FAN to constantly engage with the brand and continue to take actions based on the communications from the brand. With it's relatively low cost of execution, email marketing is often being used for mass marketing.

The only thing worse than SPAM is mass marketing messages from a brand you actually care about.