Is All This Data Worth It?

No matter what industry you are in, companies need data to see how they are stacking up against their competitors and to learn everything there is to know about their fans. We all say we need it and if we had it, we could do great things. However, unless you have the resources to make sense of this mountain of data, 

this strategy may not be right for you.

According to a recent eMarketerstory (and for you daily readers, I bet you are starting to see a trend on where I get my blog ideas from), six out of ten marketers in a CMO Council and SAS survey said big data was part opportunity, part obstacle, yet still have a ways to go.

Immediately, that tells me that companies are just following the trend. Like Pinterest, content marketing, Instagram and many more fads in our industry, marketers think they need to stick with the times, even if that channel or tactic doesn’t mesh with your company. Certain companies do not need to be on Pinterest. As much as we say it at work, certain companies do not have a good enough story to implement a word of mouth marketing program (hint: topic for tomorrow’s blog). Big data, like everything else, is not right for everyone.

Take WOMMA for example. We preach on and on how we want to learn everything there is to know about our most loyal fans. I whole heartedly believe that to be true. In order to do this, it takes research, surveys (which less and less people are taking nowadays), time and money. And even after all this, it takes even more time and money to make sense of it all and implement a strategy using this new information. Certain companies just don’t have the resources and if you can’t do things right, why do them at all?

My point is that not all marketers need to do what everyone else is going if it doesn’t work for them or their company. Big data, despite its relevance to understanding your audience, is not for everyone. If you don’t have the resources to invest 100% energy and effort into something, don’t do it.

What’s the point?

When to Send that Email

Marketing departments fret at this issue each every day. We want to announce our products and services to the world and picking the right channel is hard enough, but now we have to know when our consumers want to view our messages. When it comes to email marketing, few have the answer.

Talking to many in the industry, most marketing pros will say to send the email early in the morning before people’s inboxes start to pile up. Others say send it during the lunch hour because people are more relaxed. Some, and not many by my experience, say to send it later at night. In fact, in a recent study by ExperianCheetahMail, emails sent late at night performed better than any other time of the day.

Emails sent between 8 P.M. and 12 P.M. accumulated higher open rates, clickthrough rates, sales leads and sales.

Looking at the image above, the number that should jump out at you is the revenue per email. For the late night emails, that average jumped to $0.48 per email. That is more than double compared to any other time of the day.

Despite numerous studies such as this being released, we still have a long way to go before companies start adopting the tactic. The first issue that comes to mind is that most of us are not working past 8 P.M. With the rise of real-time marketing and immediate customer service, consumers want everything right away. If they have any questions about the email, those will all have to wait until the morning.

The second problem I see is that if all f us adopt this strategy, sending emails at night will become the norm. More people are opening and clicking through these night emails because first, we all have smartphones, but second, because it’s not common. Everyone likes being part of something different, but when more brands start sending emails at night, it will become the norm and people will lose interest.

Brands need to send emails when their fans want them. The best way to find that perfect time of the day is to ask them. Target your emails. Segment your lists. Always, listen to your fans. Do all this and your email marketing program will do just fine.