Why EDM works

John Wanamaker’s old adage, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half” has often been used to describe the quest for marketing accountability.

In today’s challenging marketplace, businesses want to ensure they get the maximum return on any investment and, as a result, every £ spent is being challenged to demonstrate ‘bottom line’ performance.

That’s why more and more companies are now using electronic direct mail (EDM) as part of their marketing strategy – because it is fast, cost effective and, just as importantly, can be linked back to websites and microsites for individual product service and promotion.

A well-compiled mailing list or e-mail database gives you the ability to distribute information to a wide range of potential customers at relatively low cost, especially when compared to alternatives such as direct mail or printed newsletters.

Another advantage of EDM is that an advertiser is able to ‘push’ the message to its audience, as opposed to website-based marketing which relies on a customer to visit the website. They can also track the response to this type of e-mail marketing via auto-responders, web bugs, bounce messages, unsubscribe requests, read receipts, click-throughs, etc. These mechanisms can be used to measure ‘open’ rates and positive or negative responses and to correlate sales with marketing.

The successful elements of any EDM campaign can be broken down to what is known as 40:40:20.

In other words, 40 per cent of its success is down to the quality of the offer, 40 per cent down to the quality of the database (who you sent it to) and 20 per cent to the creative element of the EDM you’re sending.

Various methods can be used to collect data but it is essential that you use a permission-based system. The laws of data protection demand due care and diligence when dealing with electronic mail and, if you have invested time and effort to compile a database, you do not want to alienate your customers by inundating them with unwanted messages. Similarly, if they have signed up to receive e-mail communications from your company, make sure that they know who the e-mail they are receiving is from. This is also where a good e-mail subject line will help especially as experienced marketers will know which words to avoid in order to nullify over-zealous spam filters. Your e-mail communication is competing with all the other messages that clutter someone’s inbox and so a well-chosen subject line, which tells potential readers what to expect if they open your e-mail is essential. Similarly, make sue you have a clear ‘call to action’, and, just as importantly, that this ‘call to action’ is readily identifiable and not ‘lost’ among the copy and graphics of your EDM.

A key consideration when undertaking an EDM campaign is deliverability. HTML e-mail (as the name suggests) is written in HTML rather than in plain text as this allows for the use of graphics and other visuals to make the communication more inviting. The major difference between a web page and an EDM are the conventions or standards used to code the HTML portion. As e-mail client software is, generally, less advanced than web browsing software, the HTML coding will often need to be simplified in order to ensure that it displays consistently (or degrades gracefully) over as many client applications as possible. This means your message reaches the widest possible audience.

All your EDM communication can (and should be) personalised, if possible, and this can easily be achieved if the data is available. Try and use activity reports from previous communications to inform, so future communications are more specifically targeted. Take the time to review your tracking and subscriber reports to see what’s working and what’s not

Tracking and response metrics enable tuning and optimisation of the e-mail marketing channel by a process of testing different variants and calculation of statistically significant results. Such research has shown that the best time and day for delivering an e-mail communication is between 10am and 2pm, Tuesday to Thursday, if you’re targeting business customers or after 6pm, or at weekends, if most of your customers are using personal e-mail addresses.

But, ultimately, it’s no good having a wealth of customer data if you don’t know what to do with it. Successful marketers must understand how to use this data to create relevant segments and use personalisation to drive relevance and conversion.

One example of how we successfully applied our knowledge and expertise in this area is when Bank of Scotland International (BOSI) approached us for assistance on launching their latest deposit account. They had a clear focus on specifically tailored products and services allied to a clear remit to keep costs down and demonstrate a high return on investment. In order to sell most efficiently their potential audience was segmented to take into account varied target groups, including those living abroad as ex pats. Any sales message had to be delivered quickly (while the product was still ‘unique’) and appeal directly to the individual audience types already identified.

Central to this communication was the need for an EDM template that could comfortably be modified to incorporate the different concept graphics whilst remaining ‘on brand’. It was vital for this communication could be viewed by as many people as possible, on as many different platforms, in order to maximise exposure to the promotional message and encourage a call to action.

The results were hugely impressive. Not only was it the most successful promotion of this type that BOSI had ever undertaken but, more importantly, their sales target was reached and exceeded after only a few days into the campaign.

A further benefit of EDM is that advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them. Furthermore, specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be delivered automatically, or can generate other events, such as the updating of the profile of a recipient to indicate a specific interest category. So, as well as being a highly effective means of marketing your services or product, it is also useful for improving and adding to your existing customer data.

Whatever your marketing strategy, it is likely that EDM offers a solution to meet your needs.