Email has been a highly effective way of targeting and engaging customers for years – and remains the backbone of most digital marketing programs. However, despite email’s maturity, most marketers are not leveraging the channel to its fullest potential. Here’s what we’ve observed:

1. Targeted email is the exception, not the rule.  Despite the push to be relevant, the majority of email marketing is still mass messaging.
2. Open and click rates are ineffective. These metrics focus on campaigns and not on who is engaging and why they are engaging with your email program.
3. Testing isn’t working. Systematic, recurring testing is rarely part of the email process – impacting our ability to leverage the full power of testing to learn, refine, and continually improve

Email Refresh
Merkle’s approach to email helps marketers develop a more customer-centric approach to email messaging. To drive results, here’s where we focus with our clients:

• Customer-Focused Contact Strategy: Leverage email as the backbone of a digital contact strategy – optimizing message sequence, cadence, and relevance.
• Subscriber Acquisition: Optimize customer acquisition touchpoints to capture and engage high-value prospects and convert them to known, marketable customers.
• Email Integration: Reveal data-driven insights and recommendations to leverage other CRM channels (site, email, mobile, search, display) to drive customer engagement and value.  
• Test & Learn: Test with a purpose. Develop a rigorous, ongoing testing plan designed to align tests with email goals and objectives. 
• Customer Centric Measurement: Develop customer-focused measurement strategies designed to identify the value of email programs and identify email optimization opportunities across channels

Our Framework and Capabilities
Our digital team helps our clients with complex email marketing programs – from targeted messaging to triggered marketing programs. To organize our activities, we utilize the following email marketing framework.