Datran Media has released the results of a brand impact survey it completed in conjunction with marketing effectiveness research company Dynamic Logic. While the survey was in support of a b-to-c campaign for online dating firm eHarmony—that company saw unaided brand awareness increase 11.5 percentage points and brand favorability increase 7.3 percentage points as a result of its e-mail campaign—many of the lessons they learned are the same for all e-mail marketers.
eHarmony does great email marketing, as does Yahoo, even if I have a problem with some of the content.
Personalization is also a key consideration, he said. “When you’re thinking about brand awareness, it’s important to segment your list.â€
All dating sites fail when it comes to customizing messaging for members. Besides your name and the last time you logged in (if that), email are generally generic in nature, lacking a tie-in with user participation metrics. Are they sending a lot of emails? Not responding to them? Adding people to hotlists? This kind of data can be used as a call to action to get people participating on a site. Why these datapoints are not integrated with email marketing campaigns is beyond me.
I’m working with several sites which will be mining their databases to create super-customized member emails, I’m excited to see the results.
