Justin Dawkins

Updates from May, 2008

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  What is the future of email? A very loaded question!

  Justin 11:57 pm on May 30, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: behaviorial targeting, Campaign Monitor, Email Marketing (7), social computing, Web Analytics (3)

  I was recently browsing through some of my favorite marketing and email blogs and came across a post from Campaign Monitor. Towards the end of the article they asked a very good, but loaded question. The question is; Where do you see email going in the future? Of course I have a million ideas of where I think email is going, but to keep things simple I kept my response short.

  Here was my response:

  Wow!!! Where is email going? I think that is a loaded questions, but a good one. I see email continuing to grow as a mechanism for transactional, and 1-to-1 messaging. I can also see email becoming behavioral based, and more integrated with SMS and other mobile messaging platforms.

  With analytics, 4D modeling, advanced segmentation, dynamic web pages, and applications becoming smarter, email can be a powerful mechanism for communication more and more targeted messages to consumers or other businesses. With technologies becoming more advanced and easier to use. Email can hold its position in the internet marketing space. After all compared to other forms of communication email is still a baby. As email matures, businesses and organizations will begin to use email in more and more powerful ways.

  Like I said it’s a loaded question, and I’m sure many people have their opinions. That’s just my two clicks.

  My question to you is; understanding how sophisticated email and internet marketing has become, what related industry (analytics, behavior based applications, social computing etc.) will run parallel and grow with email? Just a sidebar, let me know what you think.

  -Justin

 

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  After the click: Why email and analytics go hand and hand

  Justin 10:22 pm on May 27, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: analytics, Email Marketing (7), lead-gen, life-cycle marketing, Measurement (2), Web Analytics (3)

  OK, lets just hop right into this one. It’s simple really. You have a company, you have a product and you have a website. You use CPC, banner ads, affiliate marketing and many other marketing vehicles to get people to your website, but none of those really matter unless you can understand exactly what happens after a visitor clicks on a banner, or finds your site via their favorite search engine. Ok now you are probably asking yourself; “Well shouldn’t I track and measure everything with analytics?” Well if you know anything about me, you would know that my initial response is “OF COURSE!” Using web analytics with email marketing is a little more special. The great thing about email marketing is that each recipient on your list is essentially their own unique identifier. This means that you can begin to track and measure down to a single user, and then aggregate behaviors to profile your users and market to them with even more precision. This makes analytics and email a powerful combination. The fact is email marketing is one of the most measurable methods of online marketing, and with many of the web analytics tools out there, setting up a campaign and tracking recipient behavior is simple. So you have to ask yourself what pieces of information am I missing out on if you don’t have web analytics enabled during your next email marketing campaign. With these two tools you don’t have to have some robust membership management system or expensive lead generation application, to drive and qualify leads. At least not yet. Instead you can use website behavior data from your email marketing campaigns to gain insight into what, why, and how users use the information on your website. Take a minute to think about it, if you are investing time, energy, and money into your email marketing programs, wouldn’t you want to take the time understand what happens after the click?

 
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  Getting Americans to spend 60 billion.

  Justin 7:36 pm on December 26, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Internet Marketing (6), Internet Marketing Strategy, strategy

  Apparently, retailer are hoping that Americans will spend 60 billion dollars on post holiday season sales. One estimate is that nearly 24 billion of that will come from cashing in gift cards. The only question I have is; “When are they going to spend it?” Many are focusing on cutting prices and capitalizing on the post Christmas sales, but in my opinion, spending “stored dollars” becomes increasingly important to customer’s retention and customer loyalty, not just a way to clear out the storage closet.

  Reminding customers that they likely got a gift card, during the holiday season, and that it is a welcomed form of payment for their next purchase, may be a way to strengthen the conversation between retailers and consumers, particularly online. Consumers may appreciate the fact that their favorite retailer, or potentially new favorite retailer, reminded them of their stored value cards, and can recommend products or service that fit their lifestyle and preferences. Integrating this information with your CRM can be a great way for marketers to target promotional communications and generate more revenue opportunities. Imagine receiving a target email communication that says; “We know you probably have a gift card, why not come spend it on some of those technology things you like and more.” You may just be willing to click on a few call-to-action buttons in the email and purchase some things. Sure consumers are spending dollars that someone else has already spent, but what about that additional $50 power cable, or the $100 spa membership that their friend or loved-one would not have bought. The upsell and crossell opportunities, could be huge. Now that consumers have nearly 60 billion dollars stored away, your sales team can focus on selling additional services or products to compliment a customer’s primary purchase. As a customer, I would much rather spend 50 bucks on the accessories for my iPod, than the 300 bucks for the iPod and accessories (Assuming a $250 price tag on the iPod, and the gift card is valued at $250). On top of that, let’s face it, as a retailer you are taking a better margin to the bank on the accessories and service offering than you are on most of the primary purchase products, anyway.

  Many retailers may think that this is a bad idea, but I see this as an awesome opportunity to capture a new customer, or even learn more about an old one. Increasing a customer’s spending, even if it’s stored value, increases the likelihood of that customer returning for future experiences, and buying similar products or service to compliment their previous purchase. It may even rekindle an old retail-customer relationship, that has been dormant for a while. Maybe I’m thinking too much like a consumer, but if the possession of a gift card gets a customer in the door or on my website, as I retailer, I’m happy you have it. Gift cards simply act as Mr. Opportunity knocking, it’s just up to retail to answer.