As I "planned" out my blog entries, I thought I'd go through a series of introductory posts before I would start posting ad-hoc.
But, over the past couple of days a couple of items crossed my desk that were so dead-on that I had to comment .
An October 26, 2006 article on Clickz E-mail Marketers Must Get Relevant hits the nail on the head and supports Top Right's mission (which I'll talk about on a soon to be launched site and later posts). According to Jupiter Research, only 11% of all marketers use their customer purchase history or other activity to send targeted offers. The article also points out that, although segmentation is more costly, it always generates increases in revenue that easily offset the costs. My personal opinion is that there is another benefit. The more relevant the message, the less likely the customer is to get annoyed and unsubscribe (in fact, I track unsubs for targeted vs. untargeted and will let you know if there is any substance to that belief). Not tangible, but very valuable for long term profitable relationships with your customers. Why do we send the same message to everyone?
Mediapost's EmailInsider writes about "The Disconnect." Get this! The DMA reports that the ROI for Email Marketing is $57.21 for every dollar spent. Yet, marketers spend $300 million on Email Marketing and $12 BILLION on search. Huh? I've seen this first hand both directly and in the work I do at Top Right. In fact, I've seen 100X ROI on Email Marketing. Why the disconnect?
In later posts I'll talk a bit more about why we don't segment nor give Email Marketing the attention it deserves. I'll share personal and client based stories.
Nonetheless, the numbers above are inrefutable. Focusing on your customers and leveraging the power of Email makes sense.
