Posts Tagged "Email"

The title of this article today on DMNews.com titled, “Marketers still missing opportunities with loyalty programs: Survey” immediately brought to mind this recent post of ours, as well as the answer to the missing component: mobile engagement.

The article doesn’t call this out per se, but does strongly imply that engaging in-store strategies such as SMS text message promotions are an absolute necessity to address the potential threat to retailers offered by comparison enabled mobile shoppers:

“…when it comes to consumers, nearly 65% acquired information about the programs in retail environments at the point of sale, compared to only 2.8% who did so on social media networks.”

The article is based on results of a study released today by the Chief Marketing Officer Council and conducted by IBM and Ricoh.  Its key finding is that although marketers are focusing spend on social networks to communicate loyalty programs, consumers are unreceptive to this channel as opposed to strong calls to action in and around the point of sale.

A similar focus on email marketing is also cited as a disconnect between marketer priories and consumer preferences.  Speaking of preferences, relevancy is found to be at the core of effective loyalty programs regardless of how an offer is delivered.  Certainly, data is crucial to developing targeted offers, the kind of which can be efficiently collected also via text message programs such as customer surveys.

Marketers need to as well be aware that even relevant offers may struggle against the tide of comparison shopping enabled consumers expected to change the retail landscape this year and beyond.  Successful retailers will build relevancy into their loyalty programs, but also recognize that engagement strategies such as SMS text message promotions advertised in store can prevent customers from leaving for better deals, addressing key challenges threatening to make loyalty a mythical concept.

Today I came across a November 25, 2009 MarketingSherpa.com article titled, “One-Two Campaign Punch Grows Email & Mobile Lists: Segmentation Delivers 40% Lift in CTR” that is a great example of Active Customer Engagement in action.  As we have said before, Active Customer Engagement is not so much about mobile as it is targeting consumers “on the go.”  In this case, the targeted customers are truly active, as the example cited in the article is for a retailer of sporting goods, bicycles in particular.

Similar to what we described in our Point of View on Active Customer Engagement and this actual customer example, email, web and mobile communications work together as part of a larger effort consisting of media buys supporting a promotion.  It isn’t apparent that the retailer had access to a system encapsulating all the components required to configure, execute and measure the program, but you can be certain if it did, ROI would have been greater.

A tidal wave of buzz is building around Active Customer Engagement, as illustrated by another recent article outlining the solution here on the Illinois Technology Association website.  Today as well, we were featured in a brief article titled, “Time to market with mobile” at brand-e.biz in which we say the following that gets to the heart of what Active Customer Engagement’s value is all about:

“What should drive mobile marketing investments is a strategy which focuses on the customer experience, what you want to achieve with your customers.  Developing ideal mobile paths for your customers to follow to achieve your goals should yield the best results…And in practice this will almost always mean some combination of text message interactions, mobile applications, mobile optimized web and even e-mail.”

Today on MobileMarketingWatch.com a post appeared titled, “Applying Email Strategies To Mobile Marketing,” which suggests email marketing best practices have applications within mobile.  While I agree that strategies like targeting and relevance apply to either discipline, as noted here marketers should remember that email and mobile often have different or interdependent applications.

More interesting than the recommendations were references to an earlier November 24, 2009 article on MarketingVox.com citing Direct Marketing Association (DMA) ROI research for email and search marketing:

“…commercial email now returns $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009…”

“…search advertising..is the next most effective channel with an ROI of $21.85 for every dollar spent.”

A simple conclusion would be that email’s return is about 100 percent that of search.  Consider as well that, with respect to email, “41% of consumers find that promotional offers are irrelevant, according to a study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).”  That means despite nearly half of those subject to email marketing rejecting those offers, ROI is greater than 4,000 percent!  It isn’t clear if ROI was calculated based on direct sales driven by email promotions.

Even so, you could argue that relevance is a key determinant of return for email and search marketing investments.  Paid search may help connect consumers with relevant results, yet search by its nature is rather broad, pointing consumers to some destination rather than calling them to action.  An email communication pushed to a consumer by a business should be more targeted, relevant and contain a compelling call to action.

Considering mobile — especially SMS text message interactions – by its nature must be relevant, ROI should exceed both email and search.  Extrapolating figures cited in the article, ROI for mobile marketing could be another 100 percent greater than email, offering upwards of $80 for every dollar spent.  Even if it’s no better than email, mobile’s ROI is highly relevant to marketer’s interested in making the most of their budgets.

The beauty of mobile marketing is that by definition, you have to approach the channel with the perspective of creating a relevant message, call to action or offer – a marketer has no choice.  Whether needing to obtain permission from customers to communicate via SMS text message or ensuring an investment in a mobile application pays off with thousands of downloads, relative to other marketing tactics such as email, relevance is a must in formulating any mobile marketing strategy that hopes to succeed.  You could argue the high response rates common with mobile promotions reflect the necessity to craft plans that focus on the customer (convenience, for example) more so than the marketer’s goal (such as selling more products).

I call out email specifically because of a few different things I’ve read over the past week which suggest certain marketing tactics make it too easy to be ineffective – or less relevant to consumer needs.

Although mobile email use is growing, email as an interactive channel by itself has hurdles to overcome in my view which hurts its ability to serve a marketer’s objectives.  Today, for example, on eMarketer.com an article titled, “Relevance Remains a Challenge for E-Mail Marketers” cites statistics which suggest email for many consumers is very much like traditional snail mail – for the bills:

“Promotional e-mails were the most common thing for respondents to find in their inbox, with 60% saying they received such e-mails most. E-newsletters were the next-most-common type of messages.

But it was the least common messages that were most likely to be opened—monthly bills and bank statements. Only about four in 10 recipients said they “always” opened promotional offers or newsletters.”

It’s the consequence of this mismatch between consumer preference and marketer practice that marketers need to be wary of:

“Web users also complained of receiving too many to manage and getting tired of all the clutter.  In many cases that clutter can have consequences for marketers: 22% of respondents have decided not to purchase from a company because of irrelevant promotions, either via e-mail or direct mail.  A further 41% said they would consider doing the same.”

Another article, a November 20, 2009 item titled, “Yesmail talks strategy behind mobile email, SMS features” quotes the email marketing firm’s leaders regarding their move to offer mobile marketing services to its clients:

“Yesmail is already starting to early stages of mobile marketing evolving from an acquisition channel to a retention channel.  We expect to see SMS campaigns being created with the same level of sophistication as many email marketing campaigns – both in terms of segmentation and in terms of staged triggering over the next two years.”

In fact, some mobile marketing providers are already offering the ability to create triggered campaigns based on customer segments – no need to wait two years.  It’s illustrative of an undercurrent of FUD (fear/uncertainty/doubt) from email marketing services companies scrambling to extend their offerings into mobile in order to hang on to their customers, many of whom increasingly view email as a commodity.  Wise marketers should recognize the difference and not get fixated on mobile as an add on to an email campaign.

When it comes time to creating a relevant message flow, offer or call to action, it’s logical to segment your customers into groupings which lend themselves to the task.  This was the topic of a great October 22 article on ChiefMarketer.com titled, “Lock and Load: The Basics of Triggered E-mail Campaigns.”  The article is all about email as a means of crafting an interactive dialogue with customers to achieve business goals – a task that email may be ill suited to given the recent statistics cited in this post.  It concludes with a quote that marketers should take to heart, but with a view toward mobile as the means – not email:

“The beauty of event-based triggered messaging is that you can make it extremely relevant to the person receiving the e-mail.”

Problem is, email may not be the right approach to delivering those messages.

We recently blogged about challenges facing organizations as they begin considering mobile within their marketing and customer relationship development mixes.  From mobile getting confused with email as a tactic, to convincing top marketers that mobile is a key interaction channel, mobile faces barriers to adoption.  Add in potential confusion over the need to first obtain permission to contact your customers via mobile and the consequences of not doing so, and the discussion often comes to an impasse.

It need not though, and today I came across a good article on DMNews.com with some sage advice for marketers sitting on the fence with mobile.

Titled “Why SMS messaging is more than a teen tool for marketers,” the author makes some good, common sense recommendations about how to obtain opt in permission and thus begin marketing to customers through the mobile channel:

“…when a customer visits your Website and signs up to receive updates on sales, new products or services, offer the customer the option to receive updates via SMS in addition to, or instead of, email alerts.”

“For those businesses or product lines with standard customer agreements in place, the consent to receive important updates and offers via SMS and other communication channels can be added directly to the customer agreement, securing an opt-in immediately upon the origination of the business relationship.”

I thought the latter point was notable, as I have not seen such a recommendation before yet it makes complete sense, for both B2B and B2C customer relationships where some agreement accompanies the transaction.

The takeaway here is that opt in doesn’t need to be the centerpiece of a complex or costly marketing program with various calls to action.  In fact, gaining permission using existing forms of customer communication means the opt in step may be right under your nose.

As a relatively new channel and marketing method, mobile faces a challenge common to most new techniques and business processes – clear ownership for its success in a business.  A post two days ago on MobileMarketingWatch.com titled “E-Mail Marketers Don’t Get Mobile Marketing” brings home the point around a key stakeholder – the email marketer.

The post cites recent comments by MobileStorm’s CEO, who laments the fact email marketers often gate mobile from gaining more traction than it otherwise should.  He’s found prejudice developing against mobile as a viable marketing channel, let alone a complement to email.  Email marketers don’t understand how mobile differs from email and fear customer backlash in the event a mobile interaction is not executed properly.

I would argue that this situation is largely due to the way mobile marketing service companies have packaged and positioned their offerings. To date, mobile marketing services — especially those based on SMS — have looked a lot like email in terms of fee structure and focus on message delivery.

There is certainly a large business opportunity with this approach, yet logically, packaging and selling mobile around large business problems would align more closely with the concerns and needs of marketing leaders (which does not exclude email marketers, but it might clarify mobile’s value and role relative to email).

As I’ve noted here, email marketing service companies have begun extending their services into the mobile realm, attempting to prevent scarce marketing dollars from flowing away from email. Their efforts compound the above issue by pushing mobile as an adjunct to email.

I am reminded of this October 30, 2009 article on eMarketer.com, where an interactive agency exec explains a key challenge facing marketers interested in mobile:

“just figuring out who owns mobile (is a challenge).  Mobile itself can be used for just a lot of different goals.  For instance, it often works really well as a drive-to-store program.  The problem is that those handling drive-to-store programs aren’t necessarily those handling online marketing, which is focused on getting people to your Website.  So if you’re not trying to get people to your Website or to a store, then it can often just wind up in limbo.  I think those kinds of organizational challenges are just one of the hurdles that mobile overall has been facing.”

We are probably a long way from seeing a title like “Chief Mobile Officer” who takes ownership of the mobile channel customer relationship.  Until that point, marketing leaders need to take mobile seriously and not relegate it to another message channel for consideration (or not) by email marketers.  I imagine the smarter email marketers fully comprehend the distinction between email and mobile.  Those who fail to see the difference should consider the rapidly growing list of examples where email and mobile work in tandem to deliver a revenue and profit producing mobile customer experience.

We recently blogged about a paper from email provider ExactTarget regarding its view on the mobile channel.   Curious to see what other email providers might offer, today I checked out YesMail.  They too offer a white paper about email and mobile marketing, which I found quite good.

Many of the paper’s conclusions are consistent with views we have blogged about, but I was curious if and how YesMail offers mobile capabilities, if at all.  Searching, I came across this October 19, 2009 announcement that I think was missed by the mobile marketing press.  In it, YesMail announces additional capabilities to its Enterprise edition service encompassing both mobile email and SMS messaging.

For SMS, they have partnered with VeriSign as an aggregator to offer single point messaging access across many network carriers – not unlike other SMS text messaging marketing providers.  Not clear was how actual campaigns are created, deployed, and measured, and even their website provides sparse details.  It’s as if there’s a gap between prescriptions in their white paper and their new mobile capabilities.

It appears that like other email providers, text messaging is being viewed as a complement or alternative message delivery medium to email, designed to ensure email marketers don’t look elsewhere when the topic of mobile comes up within their organizations.  Wise marketers, be they aligned to email or not, would be well served by looking at the mobile customer experience to guide their initial forays into mobile.

An October 14, 2009 eMarketer.com article titled “Understanding Consumer Preferences” highlights results from a recent survey conducted by Forrester Consulting, but commissioned by email provider ExactTarget.  The article made some interesting if not surprising claims about consumer use and preference for email relative to other communication mediums, including:

“…consumers choose e-mail at a rate of three-to-one over any other channel for marketing communications.”

As a marketer, that sort of statement suggests I allocate more money to my email budget, but maybe not.  The article co-mingles a lot of related but different ideas which are not entirely comparable: customer channel preferences in the abstract, multi-channel marketing and permission-based marketing methods.  So I downloaded the full report and read it myself.

I can appreciate the marketing utility of a study conducted by a third party and whose results fully support my company’s vision and business plan.  The problem is when the presentation is fairly transparent and ultimately not particularly useful to helping a marketer make a decision.  Before a marketer takes action based on this report, I suggest they consider the following alternative viewpoints:

Consumers don’t fear SMS spam.  The paper states “…as the data in our research shows, subscribers are weary of SMS folders clogged with SPAM or other irrelevant messages (like their email inboxes).”  That may be a data point from the study but it doesn’t jibe with other independent research showing SMS-based communications are not gated by this perception due to the awareness of SMS as an opt-in only channel (unlike email).

Don’t forget about shortcodes.   The paper describes SMS as allowing messages “only sent to 10-digit phone numbers.”  That sounds like a lot of data entry to send a simple message, which may be why shortcodes allow a consumer to exchange messages using generic or vanity 5 digit numbers.  Consumer to consumer text messages may require a full 10 digit number, but marketers may read this as a limiting factor in their communications with customers which simply isn’t the case.

Getting started with SMS marketing isn’t that complicated.  The paper describes an SMS campaign as follows:  “Must coordinate delivery across multiple carriers (typically 2-3 months for a private short code).  Submit documentation and receive approval from each mobile carrier for SMS campaign, intended audience, and supported keywords.”  Yikes.  For this reason, firms like Interactive Mediums stand at the ready with solutions that have already considered these steps, thus allowing marketers to focus on their strategy, business objectives and customer outcomes.

Isn’t text messaging more widespread now than even voice?  The paper states, “Second only to talking, text message is becoming the most common cell phone activity.”  In fact, I think more recent studies say text has eclipsed voice.

Isn’t text messaging now widely used across many demographics?  The paper states, “Not surprisingly, results showed text messaging usage skews toward younger cell phone owners.”  Marketers should not interpret this as a limiting factor in the utility of SMS text message campaigns for targeting demographics across all segments, as many success stories describe almost daily.

Marketing campaigns are a more recent application of SMS text messaging than email, which is different than saying consumers prefer email.  The paper describes more mature marketing methods like email and direct mail as associated with consumer permission for the communications.  By comparison, a small percentage of responders made similar claims for text messaging.   Given the longer history in the marketplace for email, this statistic is not surprising at all, but should not be perceived as a measure of text message viability – if anything, it illustrates the real opportunity to cut through the clutter associated with SPAM email marketers.

Text messaging is not a means to an end.  The paper states “Only 9% of SMS users currently view text messaging as a preferable alternative to promotional email…Clearly, most consumers still prefer to receive promotional communications through email.”  This is a naive view of the reality on the ground today, with many successful applications of text message marketing including email and traditional display advertising components.

Fixation on permission, subscription and relationship management.  The paper paints the opt out process of text messaging as an unobvious one that marketers need to ensure their subscribers understand.  By its nature, text messaging is an opt-in approach, whereas it has been retrofitted to email due to SPAM.  Opt-out instructions are typically bundled in SMS interactions and should clearly explain the process.

Consumers only interact with brands/businesses they want to.  The paper boldly calls out “According our survey, 80% of SMS users believe marketers should reimburse them for the cost of commercial text messages.”  This is not a material point given that consumers are called to action to opt into such communications increasingly, reflecting the cost as a nominal consideration that over time becomes even less material as data plans account for text cost effectively.

I could go on, but these were the most important points to call out as painting text too narrowly as a message delivery vehicle like email, but less effective.  Large established businesses like ExactTarget recognize that text messaging and the mobile channel overall are gaining acceptance as highly effectively customer engagement methods which may steal budget or emphasis from email.  The reality isn’t quite as black and white.

Mobile is a channel inclusive of real time interactions enabled via SMS and also provides a platform for rich applications, mobile web, and even email.  If mobile belongs on any continuum, it should take a place alongside the web, call center, and point of sale.  For this reason, wise marketers are approaching mobile as a customer engagement opportunity that requires a unique point of view reflecting the more active nature of customers “on the go.”  At Interactive Mediums we prescribe an approach which helps marketers map their marketing and customer relationship strategies to mobile most effectively.

Ubiquitous, interactive text messaging is a key component of many business’ mobile marketing strategies, as are Smartphone applications. Among the reasons these technologies are succeeding is that they were born in the mobile arena, and therefore optimized for the way a consumer uses a mobile device. They were not scaled, adapted or otherwise fitted to the mobile experience, as is happening with the web and email. I was thinking about this in light of an article today on MobileMarketer.com titled, “Pivotal Veracity to help marketers optimize email campaigns for Android, Pre.” I have not used their product, but it seems like a good solution to developing email marketing campaigns that will render, function and be measurable across different types of Smartphones.

In past posts, I have characterized email as a communication tool best used “out of line” with a customer’s daily activities, and I think that still holds even if email can be delivered to a mobile device. Email is often more verbose and detailed than text messaging, and less interactive than text, mobile websites or applications. I would now add that in addition to thinking about email in the context of “out of line” versus “in line,” it should be viewed in terms of a marketer’s customer development objectives.

• Interactive Dialogue: text messaging, websites, applications
• Communication: email and phone

The former has greater relevance in real time as a customer shops, is driving somewhere, approaching a restaurant or browsing a car dealership. The latter are activities which require sudden and dedicated attention to speak and/or interpret information, which do not lend themselves well to calling customers to action. We have also said that the Mobile Customer Experience may soon be the most relevant interaction channel, underscored in the article with respect to email:

“The day when more people read and respond to email via their handhelds than any other platform is approaching, underscoring how critical it to build email campaigns that are optimized for mobile devices.”

“The bottom line is that all handhelds are growing in importance, and more and more consumers will be accessing marketers’ email on the small screen while they’re on the go, not just the big one while they’re sitting at their desks.”

I think the real bottom line is that email has its role in the Mobile Customer Experience alongside other communication and interactive approaches, but marketers must let objectives drive the choice and scope of technologies used to achieve them.

Today at Wall Street Journal online this story’s title stood out, “Why Email No Longer Rules…”

Email’s characterization in the article is similar to one we made here in describing it as a communication method used most typically “out of line” with a person’s behavior versus more active, “in line” methods like mobile or instant messaging:

“We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun…Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging?”

The article also notes that even as email use continues to grow, alternatives and new methods are emerging even faster:

“…while email continues to grow, other types of communication services are growing far faster. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008. But the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31% to 301.5 million people.”

The sheer volume of communications now possible raises the specter of effectiveness.  The paradox which is mobile that we have talked about is also referenced; people can now communicate with almost anyone, anywhere, anytime, yet the most relevant and useful interactions are those which are personal.  The article describes the distinction as “…a river that continues to flow as you dip into it” versus “too much information.”

For mobile marketers, the takeaway should be that the opportunity presented by mobile cannot be ignored but the most effective interactions will be those that consider the Mobile Customer Experience first and foremost.