Email can boost the ROI of other marketing efforts, and vice versa. A Responsys operations manager tells you how.
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 each another.
Take email. Email is often treated as a separate channel when in fact it is proven to improve the performance of many traditional marketing methods.
With very little effort, smart marketers can use email to improve the ROI of direct mail and help target print, broadcast and online messages. On the flip side, marketers can leverage existing customer touch points to improve email marketing programs.
Supporting direct mail
One example of how email can be used to support traditional marketing methods is in conjunction with direct mail.
Typically, direct mail is scheduled and sent in bulk. These drops are expensive to produce and post. For the cost, direct mail typically garners low, single-digit response rates; but these response rates can be markedly improved by adding email to the mix.
If you are a company that depends primarily on offline purchases, you can improve direct mail conversions by using email before a drop. By sending an email in advance of a direct mail drop, you can prepare your audience in a way that will increase its recognition of your catalog, coupon, brochure, et cetera; and place a higher value on it.
If you prefer that your clients purchase online, you should use direct mail to set the stage for your email series. In this case, send out the direct mail piece as scheduled and then follow up with an email or series of emails with a similar message. Companies that do this can see some amazing results.
A large financial institution sent out a direct mail piece asking its constituents to register for an offer. The company followed that direct mail piece with a series of three emails spread over three weeks (the typical response period for direct mail). The timing of the emails was such that they hit the inbox just as responses from the previous message began to wane. Yet, each time an email was sent the company experienced an obvious and distinct increase in the number and pace of registrations. In this case, the client more than doubled registrations by using email after the direct mail drop.
As with any email, you want to make sure that the calls to action are clear and "above the fold," but -- when using email to bolster other communication methods -- it is a good idea to show some visual representation of that communication in the form of an icon, inset or callout.
These same methods can be applied to other forms of marketing communications. If you send email before a marketing message like a catalog or circular, or after a marketing message like a radio spot, you can increase conversions.
Data-level integration
Companies can target print, broadcast and online messages based on any number of criteria, but it can be difficult to collect data necessary to segment your constituents.
Most companies that have tried to collect data on constituents have -- at one time or another -- used long forms, thinking, "We have one shot at getting this information. Let's ask for everything." But with identity theft being a genuine concern these days, your constituents are reluctant to offer up anything but the most basic of information.
One way to gather more information is to do it slowly. Constituents are usually willing to offer up information if they trust you, and in small amounts. If you use a little information in a trustworthy manner, they may consider giving you a bit more information. Email simply happens to be a great way to implement this technique of progressive profiling.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Start by asking for an email address in a simple subscription form on your website.
NOTE: When I say "simple" I mean simple. Just ask for an email and address and perhaps a first name; nothing more. - Upon receiving the email address, immediately send a welcome email -- preferably a welcome series -- to the email address. The welcome series should be informational and appear in installments once every three to seven days. The first email in that series should acknowledge the subscription to your list and put the subscriber at ease with her choice to offer up her email address. The email series should welcome the subscriber, describe the company, describe what to expect from the welcome series, and encourage the person to update her profile.
NOTE: The fact that you sent an informative email (and didn't attempt to sell anything) may be enough to gain the subscriber's trust. - Each subsequent email that you send to this person should subtly attempt to gather a piece of data missing from her profile.
Over time, your company can quietly collect useful data on your constituents. If you match the data collected in the email channel to the data residing elsewhere in your databases, targeting messages becomes much easier.
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 use the data for cross-selling and other purposes.
Helping out email
Up to this point, I have focused on two ways email can help your existing marketing programs. But there is another side to this discussion; namely, how your existing marketing methods can help your email marketing programs.
Simply put, you can't send email without email addresses, and companies often fail to take full advantage of their touch points with constituents to gather email addresses.
My recommendation to every marketer that engages in email marketing is to identify every touch point your company has with constituents -- customer service, technical support, brick & 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, et cetera -- and turn those touch points into email address collection channels.
Of course, you will need a subscription mechanism to support these efforts. Here are some ideas:
- Place a quick email sign-up form on all of your high-traffic web pages, landing pages, home page and Contact Us page.
- Where a connection to the internet is not available (i.e., billboards, radio, television, direct mail, point-of-sale, et cetera), direct constituents to a landing page link where they can sign up.
- Instruct your staff to ask for an email address and associate it with each constituent's account.
We expect email to arrive quickly, so make sure your system is set up to send an email promptly. I recently made a reservation at a hotel and was asked if I'd like the confirmation number via email. Of course I said "Yes," but I didn't receive an email right away. Eventually, I became concerned and called the hotel again to have someone recite the confirmation number over the phone. So, if you ask for an email address, immediately send something to that address in the form of a welcome series, an opt-in confirmation or transactional confirmation.
By sending email messages in conjunction with traditional marketing messages, you can increase responsiveness to your messages. By collecting email addresses at every turn, your traditional marketing methods can extend the reach of your email marketing programs. It's a win-win proposition. With a little creative thought, it can be a highly profitable one.
Doug Marshall is senior manager, service solutions and operations, Responsys, Inc. Read full bio.