In a recent Sales Caffeine email newsletter from Jeffrey Gitomer, there is an article by Michelle Joyce on Making Transactions Memorable.  She had a pleasant experience at the McDonald’s drive thru in Huntersville, North Carolina, and summarized what made the transaction memorable.
 
These three simple steps can be considered website redesign tips to improve user experience at your eCommerce websites and in all your interactive marketing efforts.

1.  Start with a smile and engage your prospect in a friendly manner.  Would you do business with someone you didn’t like?  Well, neither would your prospect.  This guy made me like him – immediately.  When he made that connection, the transaction became enjoyable and personal.  It was all about me, not just my order. 

2.  Offer alternative solutions.  People want choices.   Don't assume that your customer is aware of them.  Uncover their needs and help them make a choice.  McDonald's already mastered the upsell technique with their famous line, “Do you want fries with that?”  What kind of additional features and services can you upsell?  What kind of additional revenue are you leaving on the table at every sale?

3.  End the transaction with something memorable.  When is the last time that a fast food worker told you to “drive safely”?  Usually, it is the perfunctory "thank you” and “have a nice day”; but this guy made me feel like he was genuinely concerned about my personal safety.  What are you saying to your customers that make them remember you personally?

Michelle ends by saying:  The reality is that people are still buying products and services in this economy.  The only question is "Will they buy them from you?"

Definition 6 is an interactive marketing agency that can help you make a connection to your users, whether customers or prospective ones.  We are experts in website development and custom application development.  Even though we are an Atlanta Ad Agency, we have clients across the US that we help differentiate themselves from their competition.

In recent years it seems as if E-Mail marketing has fallen by the wayside in light of emerging technologies and trends. Time and time again statistics have supported the profitability and legitimacy of E-Mail marketing, so it’s important to take a step back and see how E-Mail marketing is or more importantly isn’t, affecting your company.
Here are three questions to ask yourself or your marketing team in order to answer the bottom line; do we need to invest or reinvest in E-Mail marketing?

1) Have you forgotten about the basics?

In this new Web 2.0 world marketers are constantly scrambling to keep up with the latest trends, throwing money at anything deemed “cool,” “trendy,” or “popular.” At first glance new social outlets and advertising mediums may seem appealing, but sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace have short track records in terms of performance and viewership capabilities. These mediums aren’t poor investments by any means, but more often than not companies are blinded by the popularity of new social sites and forget about the basics of interactive marketing; E-Mail marketing. 
In one Forrester survey E-Mail more than 80% of businesses surveys achieved a significant return on investment - double that of most other marketing initiatives. I highly doubt any current social media site can boast 80% ROI satisfaction for use of their advertising and marketing platforms.

There’s a reason social media and Web 2.0 technology is called the “frontier” of internet exploration; IT’S UNKNOWN TERRITORY. If you’re hoping to catch the wave early and become one of the first settlers on the new frontier, be prepared to sacrifice quite a bit of blood, sweat, and treasure. A word of warning though for those looking to brave these mysterious, ever-changing virtual landscapes;  by the time you and other businesses jump on the bandwagon, the consumer has most likely started getting off to ride the new model bandwagon – the one that has three axels instead of two.

BOTTOM LINE: Like my great grand pappy use to say, sometimes the best things in life are the simplest things; E-Mail marketing may not be as flashy as a MySpace page, but 9/10 it will dole out a much larger reward upon investment.

2) Are you putting your data to good use?

For those already utilizing E-Mail marketing it’s important to take a step back and review your E-Mail marketing process. Do you simply click “send” every two weeks to blast your newsletter or promotion? One of the foremost reasons E-Mail campaigns fail or plateau revolve around the marketers lack of interaction, understanding, diligence, or experience analyzing and applying the data generated by their E-Mail campaign.  E-Mail is light years ahead of almost every other advertising medium in terms of accountability and tracking, the question is whether you’re leveraging this unique capability or not. With the ability to instantly review the results of your efforts, it’s important to analyze the outcome through multiple lenses rather than just a couple such as “E-Mails opened,” “conversions,” or “bounced rates.”

As a rule of thumb every time you receive the results of an E-Mail blast you should be changing at least ONE aspect of your next E-Mail strategy or design. It’s entirely possible to deploy E-Mail blasts without acknowledging the data and still receive a good response and return. As a marketer you need to apply the data you receive in order to run a GREAT campaign. Just because you’re running a “good” campaign with minimal effort doesn’t change the fact that in reality you’re really running a poor to mediocre campaign.
The most effective E-Mail marketing is an evolutionary process consisting of hours, and hours, and hours (and hours) of data compilation, review, and reform. If you or your marketing team takes performs no action other than clicking “send,” odds are you’re missing out on the true strength of E-Mail marketing; quick, intuitive, statistically supported campaign adaptation.  

BOTTOM LINE: We don’t live in a static world; neither should your E-Mail marketing.  

 3) Are you maximizing your dollar during the recession?

Marketing departments across the world have been laying off employees in droves. Even higher level management today is looking for any way possible to show their superiors that they add value to the company. What would your superiors say if they saw you could not only boost revenue but cut costs at the same time?
Marketing budgets have shrank, but thankfully E-Mail marketing prices have stayed relatively the same – cost efficient. Of all the advertising mediums both virtual and physical, E-Mail marketing is among the most cost effective with the privilege of being able to boast one of the highest ROI’s. A single print ad can cost thousands upon thousands after the cost of graphic design and ad-space. Instead of paying $10,000-$25,000+ for one month of magazine advertising, you can run a four month e-mail campaign which normally entails better audiences, conversion rates, and accountability. If you find the costs of traditional advertising to be exorbitant, it may be time to dust off the E-Mail marketing proposal and take another look.

BOTTOM LINE: As the great Benjamin Franklin once said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

So ask yourself:

1) Would it be beneficial to scale back on costly new-age technology investments in order to temporarily invest in more dependable marketing initiatives?

2) Would it be beneficial to engage in an E-Mail marketing discovery phase to see if you’ve truly been interacting with your campaigns and applying the data you find?

3) Would it be beneficial to divert your limited budget to more cost effective (and often times profitable) marketing venture such as E-Marketing?

 

At our Interactive Ad Agency we continually help our clients make good decisions regarding their online media usage. Social Media, eMail Marketing, PPC/Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Display, Mobile and Video are just the headers of the variety of options available to us. But recently Twitter has been owning the headlines.

David Martin, vice president, primary research, Nielsen Online, wrote in a blog post: "People are signing up in droves, and Twitter's unique audience is up over 100% in March."

But today I was sent a great article from MediaPost about an online / microblogging / SMS option to reach the masses that might not be the techno elite, but make up the mainstay of consumer America. More spending power and more of the participants in creating UGC for all our social media sites. The company is called Predicto and it is very focused on the celebrity world, think People, US, The View, TMZ, etc. http://www.predicto.com/

Between October and December 2008, Twitter had approximately 812,000 unique SMS users, but Predicto Mobile interacted with more than 2.3 million unique users. "We have a mainstream audience, which can help us grow faster," Kathein said. "Our members aren't necessarily the early adopters. Our customer base isn't made up of heavy iPhone users."  The full article can be found at http://bit.ly/M1QQy

I think this a great example of how Interactive Marketing is very niche and how you shouldn't fall in love with one channel, because your users might be better served with another channel.

Social Media Strategy is one of the most interesting things we do here at Definition 6, Atlanta Interactive Agency.  The rise of Web 2.0 Applications as commonplace within our daily lives has made Socail Media mainstream.  Sometimes we are asked how can we use social medai to improve search engine optimization and other times we are asked how can make social media fit into an integrated online marketing plan.  But it is a daily topic of conversation and I've found a really good report from destinationCRM.com that talks about a 5 year forecast for social media. The key points from the author, Jessica Tsai citing Jeremiah Owyang, are:

The report breaks down the past, present, and future state of the social Web into five overlapping eras:

1. The era of social relationships: Beginning in the mid-1990s, people signed up for online profiles and connected with their friends to share information.
2. The era of social functionality: As it exists today, social networking is more than just a platform for "friending," but one that can support a broader array of what Owyang calls "social interactive applications." However, identities are essentially disconnected silos within individual sites.
3. The era of social colonization: By late 2009, technologies such as OpenID and Facebook Connect will begin to break down the barriers of social networks and allow individuals to integrate their social connections as part of their online experience, blurring the lines between networks and traditional sites.
4. The era of social context: In 2010, sites will begin to recognize personal identities and social relationships to deliver customized online experiences. Social networks will become the "base of operation for everyone's online experiences."
5. The era of social commerce: In approximately two years, social networks will be more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems, as individual identities and relationships are built on this platform. Brands will serve community interests and grow based on community advocacy as users continue to drive innovation in this direction.

So if we are doing a good job of being Interactive Marketing Strategists to help prepare our clients for the "era of social context" and upgrading our customer's sites to incorporate OpenID and Facebook Connect today. This will help them meet their customers where they are and with what they are doing online today.  I'll talk more about being ready for your customer in some future posts.

I had an extremely interesting experience last week that forced me to undergo a thought exercise that I think can be extremely valuable for everyone to consider using on a regular basis. We all get so hung up in our particular expertise and the advanced nuances of our individual focus areas that we often fail to think about the basics and even more frequently we end up failing in our communication to others. My recent experience went something like this-

My wife came over to the Definition 6 offices along with my two year old daughter Mika to bring me some lunch. After lunch Mika began running around the office exploring a bit. I followed her as she ran into our main floor executive conference room. Now, I’m a bit biased, but for a child that just turned two she’s pretty impressively conversant with a great vocabulary. Here’s the conversation that followed:

Mika: What is this room?

Me: It’s a conference room.

Mika: What’s a conference room?

Me: It’s a room where people meet to discuss things.

Mika: Can I sit in one of the thinking chairs? (The “thinking chairs” reference is from her favorite show Blues Clues)

Me: Sure

Mika: What are we thinking about?

Me: Well, in this room we are usually thinking about interactive marketing?

Mika: What’s marketing, daddy?

Me: Hmmm… well, marketing is doing things that get other people to think a certain way, do certain things, or to buy things you want them to buy.

Mika: (thinks for a moment) I don’t understand marketing, daddy.

And there you have it. The question, my particular answer, and her response are in many ways less important than the thought exercise itself in my opinion. Try it yourself. Without thinking for more than a second or two, blurt out your definition of marketing as you’d answer it to a two year old. Try it again with “technology”, “managed services”, “open source”, “.NET”, etc. etc.

I’ve noticed in countless meetings how often people make assumptions about the level of understanding the audience has regarding certain terms or shared meanings. And also how often people throw around terms and concepts that they don’t seem to understand. I can’t count the number of people I have interviewed who list certain expertise and terms on their resumes only to be incapable of defining it in an interview. Go ahead- next time you interview someone lists the term “web services” on their resume ask them to define a web service, it’s components, and what exactly a web service does. You will be amazed and bewildered at the answers you receive.

Quite a few years ago when I worked at a different company and .NET first came out I recall the CEO asking via the discussion group email lists for people to explain to him the value of .NET. After dozens of convoluted and complex answers were offered he finally replied to all with the single line “Someone explain it me like I were two years old.” It’s not that he wasn’t an extremely bright and technical individual, he’s one of the brightest people I know. But it wasn’t until he asked the question in this way that people finally gave answers that culled things down to the key points and basic value.

Take this all for what it’s worth. I plan to run a lot more of my ideas and future presentations past my newly appointed diminutive advisor. There’s nothing like a two year old to keep you honest, accurate and off your high horse.

I was recently reading an article on Marketing Sherpa which was discussing their latest email marketing summit.  The article had a number of great insights on steps companies can take to improve their email programs.

The article served as reminder of how easy it is to become engulfed in the day to day or routine of your email program and how important it is to take a step back and examine the program as a whole.  Taking the time, even if it is quarterly or annually, to ensure that the email communications you are sending are both relevant and timely to your customer is imperative. 
Let’s take a look at a company within the retail industry; company A.  For years they have sent weekly emails to their customer list.  The weekly email is always composed of three offers.  Open rates are varied within a certain range, but are not showing any improvement as the program matures.  One cause of this lack of progress may be that the company has never taken a step back to evaluate who they are communicating to, why their consumer wants to hear from the company and how often this consumer would like to hear from them.   By answering these 3 fairly simple questions the company can begin to make program improvements.
1. Who are you communicating to?

This question is key to any successful email program.  It allows you to begin the process of segmentation at a base level.  Many times this data is a part of the enrollment process or may come from your CRM; some examples: is the customer a man or a woman, what is their age range, what are their interests (related to your products), do they purchase for themselves or for others, are purchases based on events (birthdays, anniversaries, etc), there are multitudes of questions you can ask which will help you to learn more about your customer. 

2. Why does the consumer want to hear from you?

Different customers are looking for different experiences with your brand.  Some may only want promotional communications – they only want to transact with your brand.  Other customers may be less interested in promotions and more interested in related lifestyle information.   Creating these differing communications and allowing recipients to choose which message they receive empowers the user and should improve both the short and long term stats of your program.

3. How often does the consumer want to hear from you?

How many lists is your customer signed up for?  How many emails are they receiving daily?  One way to ensure that you are not the list they unsubscribe from due to irrelevant and untimely communications is to give them the option.  Ask the consumer how often they would like to receive communications from you. This puts them in control.  When they receive a message from you, whether it is weekly, daily or monthly they have asked for that email and expect it.

By tackling the three issues above you can make great strides in your email program.  The main takeaways here are to know as much as you can about your customer – tailor your communications based on this information and to put the in control – allow them to “opt-in” not only to being on your list, but also to the frequency and types of communications they will receive.

Definition 6 Client Manager, Ira Gross, discovered an enlightening article in the Wall Street Journal around the impact of implementing overnight sends for email marketing newsletters.  The article mentions that companies who execute marketing programs in concert with their customers pay cycle are yielding better returns than performing promotions without paying attention to that cycle.  A few items worth mentioning from the article:

1. People buy bigger ticket items closer to payday
2. People spend less at the end of the month
3. Aligning promotions and offerings to pay cycles yeilds stronger sales

Given the current economic situation, firms need to understand their customers cash on hand and run appropriate promotions.  If you are running tartgeted email marketing campaigns, this article is definitely worth checking out.

An interactive advertising agency is in business to help its customers make more money at a lower cost than they did yesterday!  This meshes nicely with a Peter Drucker thought: "Because it is the purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two-and only two-basic functions: marketing and innovation." So if those of us in Interactive Marketing buy into this mindset, we are are at the epicenter of business. We are innovative marketers.

Let me give an example of what I mean. Let's say you come to your agency with the problem of losing sales leads when your customers come into contact with your retail partners floor sales staff. You have tried training programs, spiff, even eMail marketing Newsletters to stay top of mind with your partners. Unfortunately, they still often dislodge your customer from buying your brand and direct them to another brand. (you should confirm that you don't have a pricing or quality problem) How should you expect your Interactive advertising agency to solve this problem?

Some agencies will give you a better PPC plan, others will try on-line coupons, some might even talk about lifestyle content around your product via eNewsletters, but this is more of the same. An innovative partner will start with the simple question: "Why isn't your customer loyalty to your brand when the get to the store?" so they will solve the problem; "How to make our customers loyal before reaching the sales person". This is where innovation comes from, asking the root cause questions and not simply slapping tactic against the wall and hoping for results.

Getting prospects to "opt in" to receive more information at a website is a significant goal of interactive marketers.  They create content with strong calls to action, offer compelling reasons to offer up your email address and other information and vigilantly track and monitor opt in rates.  The goal often seems to be getting the opt in, not doing much for the prospect after wards.

As part of research I performed for a client, I opted in to several of their competitors websites.  Of the 5 sites I opted in at, 1 sent me a welcome message within a few hours, and emails fairly regularly thereafter.  Two others sent me an email within the first week, with sporadic communications since.  Two others, or 40% of my sample, have yet to send me anything - 2 months and counting.  Did my opt in take?  Do they have nothing to say to me?  So I ask this simple question, what should a firm do once someone has opted in?

It seems to me that a welcome email or some form of acknowledgment within 48 hours should be the bare minimum.  That email should welcome me to their communication channel, and perhaps even inform me what I should expect now that I have opted in.  Should I expect weekly communications or a monthly newsletter?  Special promotions or general information?

The firms I am receptive to send a welcome email almost immediately.  That is followed up with some form of "standard" email marketing piece within the next few weeks.  If that first real email marketing message shows the firm understands where my interests lay (i.e. what I was doing on their site when I opted in), I quickly start to look forward to their communications as they are viewed as relavent. 

When no welcome email arrives, and weeks or months go by without hearing anything, I feel duped and question what I was thinking when I opted in.  Those sites are not likely to get more traffic from me, and they are likely to be fodder at the next interactive marketing meeting on how to not engage your customers and prospects.  List building has a definite place, but going dark on an eager prospect is no way to grow a business, especially in these tough times.

So, if you have nothing to say, I would question having an opt in area on your website.  If you are doing simple list building, I would at least mandate a welcome email, and in that email I would set an expectation of sporadic communications.  Users will understand what you tell them.  But in the absence of telling them anything, the best you can hope for is that they will simply move on, and you will have missed a good opportunity with an interested prospect.  At worst, you might get called out in an interactive marketing blog as the poster child of how not to run an opt-in interactive marketing campaign.

I came across a great article yesterday on MarketingSherpa.com which summarized some very practical and useful tips on improving email opt-ins.  Below are 10 low-cost tactics collected from past MarketingSherpa case studies including how to’s on boosting referrals, establishing co-registration barters, optimizing registration pages and using offline channels for email address collection.

Low-cost Tactics for Opt-in Growth

1.     Increase incentive for referrals - offer a discount coupon to encourage your customers to recruit new opt-ins to their email newsletter and promotional messages

2.     Highlight relevance in co-registration placement - find relevant partners and present your offer in a compelling way

3.     Create co-branded sweepstakes – recruit partners to share the promotion with their own customers and in exchange, trade opt-in checkboxes on one another’s sites.

4.     Combat email address typos – conduct tests to capture email typos before they reach your database

5.     Test a delayed intercept for opt-ins i.e. test a version of on overlay that appears only after your visitor spends 1+ minute on the site.

6.     Test additional locations for opt-in checkboxes i.e. add them on higher traffic web pages

7.     Test small tweaks of registration form such as offer type, images, required fields, amount of information and submit button copy

8.     Use telesales and customer service reps to collect opt-ins – have your inbound call center representatives ask for email opt-ins during calls

9.     Print an opt-in URL on receipts for POS registrations – let customers enter their own information through a custom URL on a sales receipt

10.   Add change-of-email address form to site - place reminders throughout your site that ask customers to report a change of address.

Definition 6 leverages expertise in website integration, managed computer services, design, marketing and consulting to create solutions that help our clients increase revenues and reduce costs to build competetive advantage,

Mobile web is exploding into the marketplace which translates into new revenue opportunities, new communication mediums and innovative, new marketing opportunities.  Mobile Web is about discovering the right content whenever you need it, wherever you need it.

What We Deliver:
• A basic mobile site that leverages key content and applicable functions from your existing website
• Up to 20 content pages and basic functional features from your existing website such as store locator, newsletter sign-up, product look-up or other transactional functions

Contact us today to learn how we can design and develop a basic a mobile site that leverages key content and application functions from your existing website.  Estimated timeframe for delivery is 6-7 weeks.

According to the Mobile Marketing Association, 89% of companies use text and multimedia messaging to reach their audiences.  Nearly one third of those companies plan to spend more than 10% percent of their marketing budgets on advertising in the text SMS marketing medium.

Short Message Service (SMS) is a low cost way to reach a large number of your customers through a device that they are sure to always have with them.  You can reach your customers during those key times when they are out holiday shopping to promote special deals and offers – or you can insert coupon codes directly into your message so that your customers can redeem them in-store.

So how does Definition 6 help customers implement SMS as a low-cost solution to direct marketing?  We offer 1-way and 2-way SMS text message campaigns, leveraging your existing web applications using SMS as a front-end.  In just a brief 2-3 week engagement, we can deliver a landing page with an opt-in and sign up form, an interface to be used to send out SMS messages to registered users and all the necessary underlying infrastructure and services as part of a SaaS model.  For more information and to talk to someone on our Business Development team for pricing, please visit the Definition 6 Contact Us page.

Here's something that caught the attention of our Definition 6 mom's and dad's...

The New York Times recently published an article related to kid social networking sites.  The article addressed the fact that babies may not be able to read or write, but thankfully some have tech-savvy parents who do their social networking for them.

Websites like Kidmondo, Lil'Grams, Odadeo and Totspot allow parents to share stories, milestones and photos about their little ones without having to overload the e-mail in-boxes of friends and family.  Similar to Facebook, Twitter and the like, the number of users who are signing up for these sites is growing at an exponential speed.

Also like other social networking sites, and even email marketing campaigns, these sites carry a huge viral marketing component - a key benefit to marketing and advertising gurus.

You can check out the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/fashion/11Tots.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

At Definition 6, I get this questions quite a bit, as an Interactive Advertising Agency we are often on the front lines of business managers arsenal of what to do during troubling times.  Most organizations have a flight or fight response to troubled times and we help both type of customer's needs with our core services.  I wanted to just provide two examples of why I feel the Interactive Ad Agency is a critical strategic asset for marketers today.

If you are one who is looking to "run from trouble", and I mean this to say you are thinking; "The economy is in trouble and I need to pull in the reins on spending and cut costs".  I would suggest you talk to your agency about search engine optimization solutions and move away from paid search as your only expenditure. This will allow you to earn traffic instead of pay for traffic. The effort might take a few months to begin seeing results, but the cost savings over a 6 month period will be dramatic.

If you are inclined to believe that in hard times it is time to pump up the effort. We would recommend that you look closely at leveraging your in-house email lists and focus on email marketing. By simple taking some of your existing offers from your direct mail budget and rapidly moving them to online email marketing you should be able to impact sales within 3-4 weeks and reduce costs per sale by 1/3 to 50% just by channel shifting your efforts to online.

These are certainly simple examples, but I wanted to just wanted to start a thread about what to do in uncertain times. For additional points of view on this topic check out http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/2008/10/invest-in-online-advertising-now/ by Brian Yalung.

More to come soon.

Mike Reese, an Associate Architect for Definition 6, recently initiated a conversation with the Client Services group on how to drive users to a website and how to keep them coming back.  He quoted an article he read on www.websitemagazine.com which says "The best ways to capture a users’ attention and keep them coming back are to strategize and plan your content architecture, leverage technology to assist in the effort, and incorporate the user’s voice."  Mike shared with the group a few of the article’s key points:

1. Keep the initial interaction SIMPLE.  Home pages are often complicated with slow-loading flash movies, informational ads or pop-ups.  By limiting these “bottlenecks”, users see content quickly and will stay on your site.

2. Do the research – review your search engine optimization campaigns as well as your web analytics.  If 20% of your traffic comes from email marketing newsletters or promotional campaigns, make sure you are providing content that is relevant to that 20%.  For example, users who are specifically looking for travel and lodging information have a variety of ways to get to your site.  Third party aggregators such as sidestep.com and kayak.com make up a large percentage of traffic.  It is important to understand where your users are coming from and then modify initial page visits from those sites. Get the user into your purchase funnel as quickly and easily as possible.

3.  Keep content fresh, relevant.  By incorporating rich CMS tools, business owners and marketers have the ability to push timely content.  Leverage blogs to drive online discussions and allow users to interact with the website and with business stakeholders.  It is also important to show that you care about your customers’ opinions.  You can accomplish this by offering online surveys or feedback submission forms.  Put the power in the hands of the user.

In summary, users have a variety of resources to find the information they are searching for.  Therefore you need to provide content in a seamless manner in order to promote engagement.  By creating interaction with the user, you build a level of loyalty and provide a place for their concerns and questions to be heard -- which is very different than the type of interaction they will receive from any third party site or aggregator.  Utilize exclusive web content and leverage your email marketing campaigns to grab customers and keep them coming back for more.

We encourage you to read the full article, titled “10 Ways to Increase Website Stickiness”, at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/Increase_Website_Stickiness_10_ways.aspx

I recently "opted-in" to an online retailers email list. The experience was underwhelming to say the least. After I optedin, I received an immediate email welcoming me to their distribution list. Six weeks and counting, and I have yet to receive another communication from the firm. At another e-tailors website, I opted in while looking at some of the services that they offer - in this case looking to replace some windows on my condo. Several weeks later I began to be run over by emails offering discounts on hand tools, consumer electronics, and large appliances. There was nary an acknowledgement that my reason for opting in had to do with their services rather than their products.

At a team meeting with another large internet retailer, I asked the online marketing manager if they documented where a user was on the website when they opted in. Blank stares all around. Then the question, "Why would that matter?" I asked, "Wouldn't you want to know what someone was looking at when they decided to opt in?" To me it was a totally obvious connection; to my client it was an irritating question. Further research showed most e-tailors clearly in my clients’ corner. Opting in was good enough. No reason to know more. I pose it as the complete opposite. And the difference is the ability to easily begin a 1:1 customer dialogue over the web; or not!

If the web retailer mentioned above had documented that I was looking at a window installation when I had opted in to receive additional communications, they would have targeted messages to me for window installation services, window treatments, perhaps shutters and other products that showed they knew what my specific interest in their firm was all about. Instead, I was lumped in with the several other million email optin's who apparently have an insatiable thirst for inexpensive hand tools and cheap consumer electronics. I no longer read that firms email marketing promotions, as they contain nothing I am interested in. 
 
So the light bulb clicked on. How many firms on the internet try to map where a user was when they opted in so they can create better email marketing campaigns or email marketing services. If my experiences over the past two years are any indication, the answer is not many. So here are a few simple steps that a firm can take to integrate their email campaigns in order to move towards a more customer centric 1:1 dialogue.

1. For the easiest level of integration, firms with multiple products and services can provide users with a checklist of items for which they are interested in receiving email and other interactive marketing communications. A few large computer hardware vendors are already adept at this. 

2. For sites with multiple products and services, they should capture where a user was on the site when they opted in. This could be at a category level, product level, or possibly a business unit level.

3. Create interactive marketing promotions that correlate to the distinctly different parts of the site where users opt in. For example, if I was looking at "services" at least send me email messages that show awareness that I was interested in services rather than products.

4. If product categories are highly differentiated, than the corresponding email campaign should be too. For example, if hand tools and power tools are in different categories, and I opted in looking at hand tools, than a subsequent email marketing campaigns should contain some elements related to hand tools.

5. Over time, an "opted-in" customers' sales activity should be added to their profiles so that over time the firm can know what they were viewing when they opted in, what online promotions had a high click through and/or conversion rate and which products were ultimately purchased.

At that point, the sponsoring site should have all the information they need to have a robust 1:1 customer dialogue with an engaged and nitrated client. And all because they captured what page a prospect was viewing when they opted in to receive additional information. Sometimes, the missing link doesn't have to be missing at all.