Adoption rate of behavioral targeting in emails and an example.

Return to Page 1

How widely it's used
For whatever reasons, behavioral targeting is still establishing itself among email campaigners.

But the numbers are increasing. Della Penna says his team does "an annual consumer study, asking whether people feel that email campaigns are more relevant today than last year." According to Della Penna, "Every year the numbers go up. This year about 60 percent of those surveyed say the campaigns they receive are more targeted and relevant. Last year it was 57 percent. Obviously, marketers are steadily doing a better and better job of targeting against their customers' wants and needs."

Here's an example
"Hewlett-Packard does some good things with targeted emails," says Forrester's Van Boskirk. "Their 'Technology at Work' program uses a number of opt-in elements to determine the most relevant content for the individual. They overlay that with actual email response activity to determine how often you get email and what kinds of offers your email contains. Basically, they are recognizing that your interest evolves, and are using behavioral data to determine what you should receive now. They seem to get great response to this, too, estimating that their email program influences more than $100 million in product sales.

View full email here

Next: Improving differentiation and response rates, and the future.