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Putting the Interaction Into Email
When we email friends or colleagues, we usually expect a response. We’re creating an electronic dialog. Some marketers and industry analysts think that the same should apply to email marketing. The thinking is that interaction creates opportunity – opportunity for information, sales, referrals, etc.
But not all email communications offer the ability to interact. And that’s where opportunity is lost. Or is it?
Some may argue that for their organization email is more about branding or presence than interaction. Some marketers send out, for example, email newsletters designed simply to provide information to customers on new products or trends – and think that doing so is enough. Or perhaps they’re not set up to handle interaction from certain types of email marketing communications.
In this week’s issue of 1to1 Weekly we discuss the findings of a Forrester Research study that takes aim at marketers who don’t provide customers with opportunities for interaction with their companies through email marketing. Forrester gives many of the organizations in the study a failing grade.
What’s your take? Does all email marketing need to offer interaction opportunities? And how interactive do they need to be? Is a link to something online enough or are they times when more is warranted?
Why is this even a question? Start from the perspective of the individual. What are their expectations? What are their scenarios -- might I not need some clarification, might I not want to tell you something that this email reminded me about?.
Email is another channel of a total relationships. To behave differently across channels is to add a dimension of schizophrenia to the brand message. Frankly, I think there should be a brand schizophrenia measure so businesses can see how inconsitent they are across channels. We need more psychologists in both analytic and design roles.
While email is the most cost-efficient media, it's far from being that effective as direct mail. The biggest problem is a kind of chaos that the Web offers where everybody with a PC can knock in you without a permission including hordes of spammers. You can handle it somehow with an e-commerce retail or banking site that provides some security and meaningful navigation. But any email campaign targeting individuals will struggle getting through this chaos and occasional ISP's filters. Probably, banks get it much closer than others openly warning about fraudulent emails on their sites.
The ideas in the Forrester piece “Email Marketing Lacks Customer Focus” are interesting but hardly surprising. Email is easily ignored and many times is not the communication medium that is preferred by the customer.
Email, by itself, will continue to be less effective than combined “cross media” campaigns. Campaigns that combine the use of print, web, and email, in a personalized and focused way, have a much better chance of getting through to the customer and gaining their attention (and dollars). While email alone is inexpensive, campaigns that use several media to engage the potential customer are more interesting and yield better results, (the media and message must be tied together, integrated and timed correctly).
It would be interesting to see some research that compares stand alone email campaigns with integrated “cross media” campaigns. The “cross media” campaigns might start with print, which drives a potential customer to a Response URL, (PURL). The printed message might then be reinforced by an email that contains the same HTML images and information as the original print piece. Both the printed piece and the email can direct the recipient to the Response URL, (PURL). This URL might allow the customer to order product or “opt in” to a program or contest by giving more detailed information about them, (that can then be used for an even more focused follow-up campaign). My bet is that while the “cross media” campaigns would be more expensive they would also yield much better results that would outrun the expense.
I agree with Madigan- email has become the lazy way to market...A few years back, the markting guru Seth Godin stated that email MUST be personal, relevant, and ANTICIPATED in order to work. Amazingly, the following of the advice is still rare AND email traffic continues to grow in volume exponentially. We find hardcopy mail to be a better option right now. Email's best chance to succeed is if it evolves into something more like a dialog...two of the easiest things for the receiver of an email to do are click on a link or click the REPLY button- this needs to become more the norm than the exception.
It would help if an email ad allowed the recipient to click-thru to a relevant landing page on the advertiser site. It would also help if the advertiser had an info capture page that asked the basics such as: name, email address and phone number. It would also be nice if the advertiser would actually follow-up on my questions with further online info or a phone call.
Your newsletter with Don’s article entitled, “Email Marketing Lacks Customer Focus” arrived on my desktop at almost the exact same time as an email from Sheraton. Talk about a lack of customer focus.
It’s impersonal and product focused relying on “points” to entice the recipient to be loyal and drop everything and fly to Kansas City, Knoxville or Savannah. There couldn’t have been any behavioral segmentation done on their list as I haven’t been to any of these destinations in the past 10 years.
Unfortunately email messages like this are all too common in the hotel industry. “Blasting” emails to consumers just because the technology exists is lazy marketing that most customers do not appreciate.
What ever happened to personalization, to providing relevant content, to segmentation and trying to build relationship and thus loyalty? Loyalty is so much more than just hotel points - it’s about showing respect for your customers and not spamming them with irrelevant impersonal “blasts”.
The hotel industry has a long way to go in order to become customer focused with their email programs.