The Science of Marketing

Recent data from Marketing Sherpa, and a recent post by Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions peel back the curtain on one of the biggest misconceptions in e-mail marketing- people ignore or unsubscribe from your e-mails because their inboxes are just too crowded.  The reality, supported by Marketing Sherpa’s numbers, tells us a very different story- that quite often it’s not them, it’s you.

Yes, people are busy.  Yes, e-mail gets overwhelming.  But most business professionals still consider their inboxes a key driver for daily activities and decisions.  It seems the problem is not that valuable messages are being tuned out due to overload, but that irrelevant e-mails are being ignored because, well, they’re irrelevant. 

When I think about it, the marketing e-mails I delete or opt out of are the ones that have little or nothing to do with my priorities in life or my goals at work.  Sometimes I ignore them even if they are relevant, but not a priority in the moment.  When I’m trying to create value for clients during the work day, I probably won’t look at a list of vacation bargains.  When I’m planning a vacation at night, I probably won’t open a message on best practices in B2B marketing. 

My own behavior tells me that e-mail marketing activities have to be pretty relevant these days if they are going to be effective.  We better know our audiences, understand their interests, and if possible, factor in how time-of-day can affect our success.  And in case Ardath didn’t make it clear enough, we must do all that we can to segment our audiences and make sure that the subjects, content and assets of our e-mails are relevent to small groups with specific interests.

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