Too much of email marketing is on auto pilot.  It's inexpensive and high ROI, so it gets sent with abandon, and way too often.  This broadcast mentality and high frequency have a price:  Churn, spiked complaint rates, lower deliverability and exasperated subscribers. 

There is a better alternative.  Using good data to nurture relationships with the highest value subscribers will return the highest engagement, loyalty and revenue. 

In my kickoff column, I outlined eight strategies for earning higher revenue from the email channel.  This month, we take a deep dive into the eighth and final of these: Using data to make better business decisions.

We all know that data informs decision making, and will help us optimize.  Yet we are awash in data that doesn't seem all that useful.  Opens and clicks are nice, but subscriber level data is what really helps identify the types of content that engages readers. Marketers struggle here: seemingly simple requests for an API call script can turn into months of IT haranguing and development time, some vendors over promise and budgets are tight.

That stuff is real, but no longer a good enough excuse for not utilizing data better.  I recommend just starting.   It will be imperfect.  Use the data you have to jump start segmentation and profiling program that is managed by hand at first, and build up enough expertise and back up data to make the case for deeper data integration in future.

Benchmark to these action steps:

    •    Customize. Set a goal to tailor at least one email message a month per subscriber.  We all have some data on every subscriber:  Open and click history, source of sign up, date of sign up.   Use this to create more relevancy, even if it's infrequent.  Consider a different subject line for different segments, based on interest level.  Shift content up or down in the same newsletter template to place the most relevant at the top.  Replace generic promotions with specifics – a targeted whitepaper or a highlight of an untapped product feature.  Track performance by segment against generic messages.  You'll see higher response, and may also find that fewer messages a month will generate the same or higher response.

    •    Engage.  Consider that the inverse of your open/click rate is not neutral.  If 30% open, that means 70% didn't find your message helpful, or could not pick it out of the inbox clutter.   The impact of inactive subscribers was never neutral, but now carries even more risk.  Subscribers will quickly block (complain by clicking the Report Spam button) or unsubscribe from senders who annoy them – which is any brand sending irrelevant, poorly timed or too frequent offers, regardless of permission. Plus, ISPs like Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail are increasingly looking at engagement metrics to determine the value of each marketer or publisher. So, if many on your file are ignoring your messages, that data will soon be counted against you.

    •    Lower your opportunity risk.  The only way to make money is to either increase revenue or reduce costs – or both.  In email marketing, the "cost" side is counted in lost opportunity.  When a subscriber complains (clicks the Report Spam button), they are gone forever.  Understanding the factors that drive complaints tells you the upper limit of your envelope – push too hard, and subscribers bail.  Complaint and deliverability data are essential parts of a good email marketing optimization effort.  

You can sign up for feedback loops from the major ISPs (e.g.: Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail, United Online) and they will send you the list of subscribers who complained.  Remove these folks from your file, but also analyze this data.  Is there a day of the week or a message type or a source that generates disproportionate numbers of complaints?  That tells you a lot about subscriber satisfaction - and gives you actionable data to fix whatever is irritating your subscribers.  If you don’t have access to inbox deliverability data, sign up for a deliverability tracking service or ask your ESP for it.

In our recession, the “R” in ROI stands for Retention.  Data-driven email marketing is perfectly suited to launch conversations and build loyal relationships.  The batch-and-blast routine of the past no longer works for subscribers who are busy, distracted, worried about their finances and spending time on social networks. An engagement approach based on even simple data sources will allow control over revenue drivers as well as solidify sender reputation and inbox placement.

How are you using data to optimize email marketing?  Let me know what you think and please share any ideas or comments below.  I'd also love feedback on this series – its value and relevance to your email marketing program.