From Beer to Fine Wine: Where Are You in the Email Sophistication Spectrum?

Email marketing has evolved from the old days of mass blasting to a database of unknown users, at least for legitimate email marketers. Today, consider spammers the purveyors of cheap beer and legitimate, sophisticated email marketers the makers of fine wine. Using this analogy, you have to ask yourself; do you supply your customers with cheap beer, fine wine or somewhere in between? In other words, where do you reside in the email sophistication spectrum?

At the cheap, non-sophisticated end of the spectrum, we have marketers that acquire email addresses without permission, use the term “blast” and manually send out emails that are irrelevant and intrusive to consumers. Receiving emails from these marketers is  akin to taking a large gulp of nasty malt liquor. You want to send it back to where it came from. There are a number of factors to consider in order to move up on the sophistication scale. These factors include data, targeting, relevancy and types of interactions. Let’s take a look at each of these factors.

Data
First, have you gained permission to use email addresses that you have acquired? This is imperative and if you don’t get this concept then you might as well stop reading and stick to cheap beer. As you build your database, are you collecting additional data points in order to build a rich profile of your prospects and customers? Are you gathering data from multiple online sources and funneling into a single relational database platform?

Targeting
From your database, do you segment your audience into separate lists? For example, customers, vendors and prospects? To move up the scale, perform segmentation to create specific audience groups so that specific communications can be delivered to each audience segment. For example, for your customer list, you can segment it by region, gender and last purchase date. Specific offers can then be delivered to each segment.

Relevancy
Personalization is a great place to start to engage your audience. By speaking directly to them by name and implementing other data points from their profile into your communication efforts, you are able to demonstrate that you actually know them as an individual and not a number. To move further up the scale, deliver content that is relevant to their interests. It’s a basic concept to engage in discussions that are of interest but this is a principle that many marketers fail to live by.

Automation
The less sophisticated send all their emails manually, not employing any sort of scheduling. Simple scheduling of email deliveries aids in consistent execution of campaigns. To move up the scale even further, developing “triggered” emails and fully-automated campaigns can create a rich experience for you as a marketer and your audience.

Interactions
It’s easy to send an email to a list but as consumers engage with a wide variety of channels, the more sophisticated marketers develop a communications strategy that creates an immersive brand experience across various touchpoints, including email. Having a solid communications platform that integrates channels is critical for executing at this level. For example, let’s start with a consumer that sees in-store signage that directs them to opt-in to a loyalty program by sending their email address to a designated “short code” via an SMS text message from their mobile device. Then an email is automatically sent to that user directing them to a microsite where they submit their interests, preferences and other self-reported data. From there, communications (email, SMS, voice, etc.) are delivered via channels of their choice with information that is personalized and relevant.

By moving up the scale in the categories above, you can become a sophisticated marketer ready to win the hearts and minds of your customers. So don’t stick to the cheap beer. Help make all our lives a little richer by moving up the sophistication scale with your communication strategy. Spam leaves a bad taste in all our mouths. Think of blending the finest varieties of grapes for the best wine possible and apply that principle so your customers keep thirsting for more.