Integrating Email
If your email marketing team is not involved closely with the traditional marketing team, is that a good thing or a bad thing? That depends but you can't overlook the importance of ensuring some kind of consistency in your email efforts with your overall brand and marketing programs.
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Scott Preacher, Vice President at Avenue A / Razorfish, Atlanta,
provides insight and helpful hints to make sure email isn't lost in the overall marketing mix in 2006. |
Customers are not ours: they merely lend themselves to us for a period of time where we share similar values and provide relevant insight.
Your brands impression is found around every corner. Every time consumers see your ad, visit your site, or read your emails, they are exposed to your brand. Each touchpoint is an opportunity to create a lasting relationship. As with any relationship, it needs to feel comfortable and secure.
Consumers want to know what to expect and consistency is key to a successful relationship.
Yet, as companies and their interactive media departments grow, so do each of the specialties -- search, affiliate, media buying, and email. Already many companies have separated offline marketing departments from the online. Soon online departments will be further divided into each specialty.
As these silos grow and each "specialist" does his own thing, the look, feel, and message becomes more inconsistent and convoluted. The brand begins to break down and the relationship disintegrates.
The act of cultivating a brand relationship begins at the moment a consumer becomes aware of your company. It is at this moment that you must use all marketing channels to guide them on their journey to make a purchasing decision -- and then nurture them so they take the same purchasing journey with your company over and over again.
Email can be a key channel in this journey. When used correctly, it can help attract them to your product through relevant promotions, convert them to a sale with timely messages, give them the quick service expected, learn more about them, and then persuade them to purchase again.
Throughout the journey, it is reinforcing your company's brand personality and creating a relationship with the consumers. If your message is interesting, email makes it easy to click forward and pass it on -- now you are taking the journey with new consumers.
As you integrate email into your overall marketing effort, make sure to take the following into consideration:
Build your list. Bought is not built. Third party email is out (although more companies are starting to sell their lists) and permission-based email is in. As you build your multimedia campaign, drive people to your site, and give them a clear, compelling reason to opt-in to receiving emails from your company. Without permission, you look like a spammer which can negatively affect your brand. Oh, and keep your list clean. Dirty lists waste money and flag you as a spammer.
Be relevant. "Dear Christine" is not personal. Personalized emails are out and precision emails are in. Adding someone's name at the top of the email isn't enough to make the recipient feel warm and fuzzy. Through the use of customer-created profiles, their purchase habits, and online activity you know a lot about your customer. Use this data to deliver emails with the information they need when they need it.
Share the love. Make sharing uncontrollable. Viral marketing will never be "out" and is truly a state of mind. You can create a "viral" campaign, but unless the recipient finds the information useful or entertaining enough to bother someone else with it, the campaign will not spread, which doesn't make it a very effective virus. Know your customer and give them a reason to share your love with others.
An effectively-executed integrated marketing campaign will guide your customers through the journey to a purchase and create a relationship over time. Email is the tool you can use to weave together all marketing elements…
Scott Preacher is Vice President at Avenue A / Razorfish's Atlanta office.
