Study: Traditional E-Mail Campaigns Limit Long-Term Success
Short-term, campaign-focused approaches to e-mail marketing limit the potential long-term return on investment, according to a study by e-mail marketer Quris."Effective e-mail programs are not built overnight," said John Funk, CEO at Quris, San Francisco. "They require dedication from senior management to prioritize the program's long-term objectives over short-term returns. This means shifting away from click-through and campaign-conversion metrics as the barometers of success in favor of long-term loyalty and profitability metrics."
Customer lifetime value is one of the long-term loyalty metrics that should be emphasized, he said.
Focusing on immediate campaign results compels companies to adopt aggressive marketing tactics such as rapid name acquisition, frequent promotions and large e-mail distribution campaigns, Funk said. This eventually leads to "burn out" in customer engagement and response rates and harms customer loyalty over time.
Marketers that take a shortsighted view of the costs of a campaign will spend considerably more over time to acquire fresh opt-in names to prop up flagging response rates, Funk said.
"The long-term returns will be much higher if those marketers focus more on nurturing their existing relationships with judicious use of e-mail campaigns and providing better value-added communications programs," he said.
