Email ROI - Spoiled By Our Own Success
Email works. Perhaps too well for our own darn good. The revenue that we generate every time we send out a generic, non-segmented blast mailing masks a lot of missed opportunities. Blasting the same generic message to every subscriber does generate revenue. So what's the problem, you say? If we want a seat at the marketing table, then our email channel results need to be predictable. We all know the reward for success - our bosses ask us for more. In order to optimise the email channel, we need to understand the levers that drive revenue. And that's the problem. Batching and blasting generates some revenue from some subscribers every time. But we don't know which subscribers, and nor do we know anything about the ones who did not respond. This is the reason to move from batch and blast approaches to a lifecycle based email marketing programme. Email is the highest ROI channel by far. But only because it's inexpensive to send, not because we marketers are doing a great job of optimising subscriber experiences for highest satisfaction and increased revenue. For too many marketers, email revenue per subscriber is not growing and more and more subscribers are simply ignoring our messages. No wonder subscribers ignore us. Honestly, most email marketing today is pretty terrible. It's irrelevant, poorly timed, creatively uninteresting and completely generic. The vast majority of us still follow a batch and blast broadcast approach that will never make our email messages relevant to most of our subscribers most of the time. I'd like to challenge that status quo! Consider that if we can earn a high ROI today - by creating email programmes that are compelling to just a few subscribers, just occasionally - imagine what we could do if we actually optimised our programs. Your true email ROI isn't captured by averages. It's misleading to think about email's contribution without factoring in the risks of batch and blast which include higher spam complaints and diminished deliverability, list churn and inattentive customers, brand damage and lost future revenue through continued irrelevancy. Here's the challenge. We send out a message, we get revenue. That's good! But that isn't the end of the story. Sending out messages that are irrelevant to most of your file has other costs. Look at your unsubscribe rate. Check the complaint rate (subscribers clicking the "this is spam" button). Track how many people "emotionally unsubscribe" and just ignore all your future messages. All three will rise when you send irrelevant or too frequent messages. The cost to replace these subscribers and maintain your file veracity will cut deeply into that incremental boost. It's not so hard to see why. When we abuse the trust that subscribers gave us and send boring messages or more email than could possibly be relevant, subscribers tune all our messages out. They may not actually unsubscribe or complain to the ISPs, but they unsubscribe with their delete button. These subscribers are now lost to us. Add up all that collateral damage, and your ROI may be much less or even negative. It doesn't have to be this way. In order to optimise the channel, improve our share of wallet and gain our rightful seat at the marketing table we must abandon our addiction to broadcast email and harness the power of email to establish and nurture a dialogue with our subscribers. Email success and ROI is a direct result of our ability to build a relationship with our subscribers - the kind of relationship that drives incremental revenue, loyalty and word of mouth. What does that relationship look like? It is customised, tailored to subscriber needs and structured around the prospect and customer lifecycle. Face it (and have the conviction to convince your CMO/CFO, too) that your email programme is not optimised if you send the same thing to every person on your file, every time. It will be optimised when you actively segment prospects from customers; welcome new subscribers and engage with non-responsive subscribers before they tune you out completely; acknowledge behaviours by sending triggered messages around abandon shopping carts and recent purchases, download requests, website visits and customer service calls; and respond to life stages like contract renewal dates, birthdays, anniversaries and job title changes. You will be able to accurately forecast and improve results by tracking not the diluted behaviour represented by averages, but by the true behaviour of different segments, meaningfully arranged by relationship to your brand and company. It costs only a little to send irrelevant email messages. But the hidden costs like poor deliverability, list churn and declining response rates add up quickly. Instead, invest in the technology, data, knowledge and human resources to make your programme subscriber-centric. You'll be able to predict results, and optimise them, from a position of strength. Your boss, and your subscribers, wi