Do Business Well

A further challenge suggested by the Forrester research is achieving the delicate balance between frequency of campaigns and response. Finding the right touch strategy is important to maximize the value from an e-mail list while at the same time not annoying customers or losing response owing to too high a volume of e-mail.

Consider the example where a retailer is broadcasting a fortnightly e-mail and finds that, through running a test, increasing the frequency to weekly also increases sales. It then rolls out at this frequency to the entire list, but over time the negative impact is felt with decreased sales, increased unsubscribes and a negative perception from list members. What approaches can be used to resolve this dilemma? Here are some suggestions: Continue Reading »

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An appreciation of lifetime value (LTV) is key to the theory and practice of marketing and customer relationship management. However, while the term is often used loosely, calculation of LTV is not straightforward, so many organizations do not in fact do it. Lifetime value is defined as the total net benefit that a customer or group of customers will provide a company over their total relationship with that company. Modelling is based on estimating the income and costs associated with each customer over a period of time and then calculating the net present value in current monetary terms using a discount rate value applied over the period.

There are different degrees of sophistication in calculating LTV. Option 1 is a practical way or approximate proxy for future LTV, but the true LTV is the future value of the customer at an individual level. Continue Reading »

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Spammers work hard to understand why their messages are not read and find methods to avoid being blocked. Here, legitimate e-mail marketers are much like the spammer, since they and their suppliers also need to understand what is stopping their messages getting through and identify solutions to this. There are four general points where spam or legitimate permission-based e-mail is identified, and which can stop e-mail being read by the recipient:

1. Inbox identification by the user. The simplest way that spam is identified is by the recipient; if it looks like spam from the header, it will be quickly removed using the delete button. Alternatively, recipients can report spam to their anti-spam software and, if enough people do this, there is the danger that may be added to a blacklist. Continue Reading »

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