email

The news has had its share of killers lately, hasn't it? Not to trivialize the various wars, disasters, and crimes happening around the globe, but I am actually talking about the killings declared by technology pundits: The iPad will kill the Kindle. Or the Kindle will kill paper. Or 3D TV will kill movies.

Typically, these pundits seize upon a technology or product that seems to have sputtered (in their imagination if not in reality) and imagine how a nascent technology will dislodge it. Had written language existed at the dawn of time, I'm sure a pundit would have written that the wheel would kill human feet.

Rather than predict how social networking or mobile communications will kill email, let's acknowledge that email marketing has grown substantially, even against competing channels and even during the recession. According to StrongMail, more than two-thirds of marketers plan to increase spending on email this year. As an industry, email marketing has not had a down year yet (knock on wood).

Of all the tactics used by email marketers, perhaps none enjoys as much popularity as the email newsletter, a regular mailing broadly distributed to the house list. Some newsletters focus on news and events while other focus partially or entirely on offers. Retailers in particular fall into the last category.

Marketers rely on newsletters because they cost relatively little and show immediate measurable results. Some marketers, in fact, never send anything but newsletters and have no complaints.

In short, newsletters could not display greater health as a marketing tool.

Needless to say, this situation demands someone to take a contrary point of view, so I appoint myself the official asker of "what if?" What if we killed the newsletter?

Let's focus on the downside of newsletters. If newsletters have a weak point, it revolves around relevance. Marketers that send newsletters with the same content and offers for everyone risk irrelevance. But even marketers that use dynamic content to drive greater response often fall into the trap of keeping the cadence the same for all subscribers. Surely some highly involved subscribers would respond more often if presented with more frequent emails. By the same token, some less-involved subscribers might respond better to a slower cadence.

Some marketers actually address cadence by asking respondents for their choice of email frequency. Others calculate optimal cadence using analytics. However, this approach requires heavy use of technology and marketer attention -- commodities that might have severe limitations.

A potential solution might lie in the following three-part approach:

Welcome stream communications
Marketers including myself have long argued for strong welcome communications. The first few emails, often multiple emails delivered in a short timeframe, give marketers the chance to engage consumers when they show the clearest interest in a brand. Welcome communications can get the customer acquainted with the brand and prepare him or her for subsequent communications. Marketers who fail to use welcome communications risk confusing or even overwhelming new customers.

In the no-newsletter approach, a marketer should use the welcome emails not only to introduce the brand, but also to introduce key channels for response. Most obviously, this means driving the new customer to the right parts of the website. But it also may mean educating him or her about key inbound telemarketing, social networking, mobile, and even in-store channels.

Triggered communications
Instead of newsletters, marketers should focus on responding to customer behavior with their emails. First and foremost, this means tying web analytics to the email campaign engine so that specific behaviors on the website will result in a targeted email. For instance, if a subscriber visits the site and browses a product, he or she should receive an email about that product, the category, or a related product shortly thereafter. The marketer should test to determine which actions on the website correspond to the most appropriate and effective emails.

Similarly, the marketer should look at ways to trigger emails based on calls to the call center, actions in social media, or even store visits. Granted, some of these channels present technology hurdles, but the basics of emails triggered by websites fall well within the grasp of all marketers.

By relying on triggered emails instead of newsletters, the marketer communicates in an inherently more relevant fashion when the customer has raised a hand. Moreover, by tying the content or offer to behavior, the marketer shows that the company is listening.

Reactivation communications
Triggered communications have an obvious weak point: They don't work if the customer does not set off the trigger. To prevent the customer from disappearing, a marketer can use reactivation emails to drive behavior that will result in a triggered communication.

The marketer should send reactivation campaigns to customers whose inactivity reaches a set threshold -- say, 30 days without triggering an email. The reactivation communication should ideally refer to past activity to provide relevance ("still interested in this product?"). Subsequent inactivity may require additional reactivation tactics such as discount offers. Remember, the reactivation communications serve to keep the customer engaged.

Obviously, this line of thinking will not kill the newsletter. But it should challenge marketers to rethink how they engage with their customers. Rather than waiting for the appointed day for engagement, marketers should seek out opportunities to engage. The opportunities are -- shall we say -- killers.

Chris Marriott is vice president and global managing director for Acxiom Digital.

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