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:

1. Offer more customer choice by offering communications preferences — enable customers to tailor the type and frequency of communications received. Amazon provides this facility, although not at opt-in (users are opted into all communications by default); it is available to customers if they feel they are receiving too many messages. Contrast this with other e-retailers, where the only option is all or nothing.
2. Customers who are responsive to e-mail must be monitored at a more granular level than the whole list. Customer responsiveness can be assessed relative to typical values, and customers who are less responsive (for example, if they are not regularly clicking through on the e-mail) should be e-mailed less frequently. More periodic e-mails with stronger offers may have a stronger response.
3. Increase the relevance of messages by matching them with customer intent — i.e. a sense and respond approach where e-mails are sent in response to customers at different stages of the lifecycle, or when they are visiting the web site unprompted by an e-mail.
4. As you use more advanced targeting, it becomes increasingly difficult to monitor the number of e-mails received by customers; will vary according to different selects against the database. Producing a touch frequency plot can help to assess whether some customers are being e-mailed too often or not often enough.
5. Put limits on e-mail frequency, such as minimum or maximum e-mails in a period.

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