Power of relevance in email marketing

by Simone Barratt, managing director, e-Dialog UK, Revolution UK 01-Nov-07

In today's market, 97 percent of all marketers use email to communicate with customers.

The reasons are clear - email works; DMA research shows that it provides
significant cost advantages and the highest ROI of any other online
marketing effort. But the ubiquitous nature of email is also the source

of its challenges.

It has never been more difficult to get messages noticed in a customer's
inbox, let alone getting customers to respond positively or take action.
Today consumers expect sophisticated, highly personalised communications
that deliver what they want when they want it. Relevance generates
greater ROI, increases revenue and profits and builds deeper customer
engagement.

Yet because of email's ROI, many email marketers continue to broadcast
messages, hoping that their customers won't get burnt out by frequent,
irrelevant mailings. But they will.

So what exactly is 'relevance' and how does an email marketer achieve
it?

Until recently, no standard existed for the definition or measurement of
relevance in email marketing, nor did marketers have a recommended path
for continuously improving their programmes.

By using criteria and a scoring mechanism and applying it consistently
over time, marketers will be able to quantify the relevance of email
programmes. Furthermore, consistent application of a methodology - such
as The Relevance Trajectory that e-Dialog has just launched - will allow
marketers to identify opportunities for improving email relevance and to
track their progress as they move up the trajectory. Ultimately, this
will lead to an increase in conversion rates, revenue, profits and
customer engagement.

However, relevance isn't easy to achieve and email marketers generally
fail to use targeting tactics such as segmentation, personalisation,
message frequency techniques and behavioural triggers. Relevance
requires the right combination of data, marketing expertise, technology,
content, content management, project management/workflow, technology,
resources, methodology and, of course, testing and measurement.

But emailers need to take note. Not only is relevance key to customer
engagement and life-time value, but it is also an imperative for
deliverability. Many of the top ISPs now consider the reputation of the
emailer to be the single most important criteria that they assess when
considering if your emails get delivered or not. And what better way to
improve your reputation - than to improve the relevance of your
campaigns. The business risks are too high not to.