Data is still King

After a rather amusing response from XM Pie on the last critique of their email marketing, one would think that more attention would have been paid to the next drop.

Despite claims of sending only relevant and highly targeted email, the following communication was recently distributed.

This sounds like a reasonable offer, until you get to the landing page…

The recipient is not a customer. We don’t recommend that marketers send offers to people who do not quality for them.  I suppose it is possible the tactic may motivate a prospect to become a customer in order to participate in a sales pitch, but is it more likely to piss them off for having their time wasted.   That “block sender” button is suddenly more tempting to click.

Take Aways

· Understand your data file – if you don’t know who someone is, be careful what you send them

· Deliver the right message to the right prospect and make sure they qualify for the offer – this is especially true for financing or lease offers – develop personas and segment accordingly BEFORE you market

· If you manage to get a prospect to a landing page, take the opportunity to ask what they are interested in, do not only push information

Stay tuned for insight on CAN-SPAM and making sure your audience has actually opted-in to your communications.