The Time Is Right For Innovation

Why Read This RepoRT

There’s no doubt about it: Contextual marketing will reorient the role that email plays in your digital marketing toolkit. But marketing leaders need not abandon existing email campaigns in the name of adopting a contextual approach. The climate is ideal for innovating to improve your existing campaign performance while also laying the groundwork for more advanced approaches. This report identifies the key email innovations you should prioritize to get the most out of email marketing in the future. Forrester reviews and updates playbook reports periodically for continued relevance and accuracy; this report replaces an earlier road map report of the email marketing playbook.

road Map: the email Marketing playbook

by shar VanBoskirk

with Carlton a. doty, kara hoisington, and elizabeth ryckewaert

innovaTe WiTh email maRkeTing noW

Recent email marketing vendor consolidation creates a perfect climate for marketing leaders to optimize the performance of current email programs while also adjusting their approaches to email to establish and exploit context. In fact, rather than slowing innovation, the email vendor acquisition spree of the past 24 months makes room for alternate players to introduce innovative offerings (see Figure 1):

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from our 2014 Forrester Wave™ evaluation of email marketing vendors, demonstrate an inspired ability to innovate.1 Service provider Epsilon has redefined platform interface standards to be mobile-first, while StrongView offers real-time, contextual insights.

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and MyBuys now also create and deliver personalized emails. Dynamic ad-serving firms Criteo and TellApart purchased email delivery engines to provide personalized predictive offers across channels. And predictive analytics specialists like Custora and Windsor Circle have amped up their support for

email service providers (ESPs) through advanced segmentation products.

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with their new parents, newcomers or second-tier email vendors are ramping their capabilities and market presence. For example, Sailthru combines the big data capabilities of a customer analytics vendor with multichannel message deployment. SmartFocus (formerly Emailvision) now provides “context aware” marketing through email, mobile, and physical channels. Demandware just purchased

retail email personalizer CQuotient to create one-to-one experiences across online and offline commerce touchpoints. And straightforward ESPs like UK-based Adestra and Dotmailer are pushing

Figure 1 Alternative Vendors Offer Innovative Applications

Source: Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution prohibited. 120926

Type of vendor Innovative application Examples

Predictive analytics • AgilOne

• Custora • Lattice Engines • Windsor Circle Automate predictive models to

improve email targeting, relevance, and retention

Omnichannel personalization • CQuotient

• Monetate • MyBuys • Sailthru • Selligent • SmartFocus Customize experiences across

Web, social, email, and mobile individuals

Dynamic content • Kickdynamic

• Moveable Ink • PowerInbox Use context — like location, device,

or weather — to personalize email content at the time of open

Personalized retargeting • Criteo

• TellApart Target offers in display ads and

email based on previous behavior in either

Design testing and optimization • Litmus Software

• Return Path Evaluate how email permutations

render in multifarious circumstances

Email service providers • IBM/Silverpop

• Lyris

• Strongview Systems Apply contextual insights to email

deployments

advanced practices offer a Road map To Contextual email

New capabilities from these competing vendors help marketing leaders apply advanced email practices to improve campaign relevance and prep for more-sophisticated contextual marketing efforts in the future. In our research, we found that your peers prioritize these efforts:

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tailored to previous email behavior or past online purchases. Over the next five years, emailers will individualize messages based on omnichannel habits, attitudes, and context.2 For example, daily deal retailer HauteLook used a reactivation program developed off multichannel customer profiles from Datalogix to generate 14 times more revenue per member compared with its standard email programs.3 _{True Religion Brand Jeans boosted click-throughs by optimizing} message format to suit the device used to open the message.4 And Redfin adjusts offers and content based on customer context, like the weather at time of open.

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personalization, means adjusting marketing and message strategy based on predictive analysis of specific user groups. A basic demonstration of this: MyBuys sharpens shopping cart abandonment emails by including products it predicts will drive a response based on the other items left in the cart. A more advanced example: Men’s apparel brand Bonobos increased customer lifetime value by 20% when it adjusted marketing messages based on predicted value and attrition of different customer segments.5

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multiple screens. With 60% of US smartphone users accessing personal email daily via mobile, marketing leaders must consider that users engage differently with mobile devices compared with PCs and must adjust email content, offers, and delivery strategy accordingly. 6 Graphic tee designer Threadless tests mobile-specific offers.7 And members of Epsilon’s Email Response Network increase open rates by 11% and click-throughs by 10%, on average, when they use the collective’s shared insights about response behavior by device to inform message content and delivery timing.8

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email messages. Email can identify users even when they’re using non-email channels. And email behavioral data can inform marketing through other means. Retailers we interviewed recognize this and prioritized e-receipt projects to collect customer email addresses. Cara Olson, the director of direct marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) at digital agency DEG, says she is getting more requests from clients for clienteling support that serves user profiles to store associates based on an email ID and past email behavior. She iterates: “We also deliver email promotions when a user is in-store. Email is in their hand while users are at the register.”

R e c o m m e n d at i o n s

Campaign innovaTions lay The gRound WoRk FoR ConTexTual maRkeTing Don’t get stuck in the “this is the way we’ve always done it” mindset. Technology development and vendor competition will work in your favor to trial new attempts. Here are a few ways to get started in 2015:

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relevant emails with no incremental data investment. In fact, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have even built data exchanges to make free public data — like weather, census information, or traffic — more accessible to marketing leaders.9 So there’s no reason not to innovate with customer context. Red Roof Inn applied this approach to its paid search programs. It boosted hotel bookings by 60% with no additional spend when it used flight cancellation

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email newcomers are introducing cutting-edge email innovations. For example, MyBuys alerts generate nine times more conversions than regular segmented emails because they announce new products specifically to users who have completed certain behaviors. And CQuotient increases revenue per customer 10% to 20% with emailed product

recommendations based on online and offline data, including in-store activity, returns, and catalog orders. Most of these vendors offer flexible pricing and partner with — rather than replace — ESPs. We think you’ll be as glad as The Children’s Place, The Container Store, and Helzberg Diamonds are that you sat through these vendors’ pitches.

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steps that you can take immediately. This third to-do is part of a long-term philosophical shift that we describe in the continuous improvement report of this playbook.11 While you launch personalized campaigns that are designed for a mobile mindset, also gradually elevate the perception of email marketing within your organization. Retailer NastyGal applied analytics to its email strategy. Other retailers now collect email addresses at point of sale. And Epsilon finds that its most advanced clients staff email with veteran marketers — not recent grads — to give email organizational gravitas.

supplemenTal maTeRial

Companies interviewed For This Report 360i

Belk

Cancer Treatment Centers of America Cardinal Health Citigroup CQuotient Custora DEG Epsilon iCrossing IgnitionOne L.L.Bean Lids LiveIntent Movable Ink MyBuys Rise Interactive StrongView Systems TellApart

endnoTes

1 _{Email marketers can capture de novo opportunity if they innovate around email itself. Forrester identifies}

an email marketing landscape that is open to innovation. See the July 23, 2014, “The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Vendors, Q3 2014” report.

2 _{In May 2014, Monetate commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate how marketers use and value}

email and its role in the new digital marketing mix. Results from the research indicate that marketers are interested in (and will even pay a premium for) emerging email innovations like microsegment targeting, personalization — both basic and advanced, like open-time personalization — and mobile-first efforts. Source: “Forrester Research: Innovate With Email to Create Competitive Advantage,” Monetate (http://info. monetate.com/forrester-research-innovate-with-email-lp.html).

3 _{Datalogix data includes 90% of US households and more than $2 trillion in consumer-level}

channel-agnostic purchase data. Read about HauteLook’s application of these insights. Source: “Audience Insights,” Datalogix (http://www.datalogix.com/success-stories/solution/audience-insights/).

4 _{Monetate features its work with True Religion Brand Jeans. Source: “Open-Time Email Makes Testing a}

Snap,” Monetate, January 28, 2014 (http://content.monetate.com/h/i/11568771-true-religion-open-time-email-makes-testing-a-snap).

5 _{One of Custora’s signature offerings, its predictive lifetime value analysis, worked for Bonobos. Source:}

“Predictive Customer Lifetime Value is a perfect fit for a brand that’s re-inventing men’s retail,” Custora (https://custora.com/customer_results/bonobos_predictive_customer_lifetime_value).

6 _{Source: Forrester’s North American Consumer Technographics® Online Benchmark Survey (Part 1), 2014.} 7 _{Threadless worked with Monetate to optimize its mobile experience. Source: “Threadless Turns Upping}

Mobile Conversion Rates Into an Art Form,” Monetate, September 30, 2013 (http://content.monetate.com/ h/i/11568741-threadless-turns-upping-mobile-conversion-rates-into-an-art-form).

8 _{Collecting online behaviors or buying third-party data provides only a fraction of a complete customer}

profile. Attempting to achieve a 360-degree view of customers with these sources alone is a fool’s errand. In an era of perpetual connectivity, with business users and consumers demanding always-on access to data and resources, you need data and insight from as many sources as possible. See the May 8, 2013, “Introducing Adaptive Intelligence” report.

Epsilon’s Response Network (ERN) offers a data cooperative where members share and get access to email data from other members. This press release provides insights and recent developments linking ERN data with social networking profiles. Source: “Epsilon’s response network makes cross-channel integration possible with social media tool,” Epsilon press release, September 8, 2013 (http://pressroom.epsilon.com/ epsilons-response-network-makes-cross-channel-integration-possible-with-social-media-tool/).

9 _{Several cloud providers have built data exchanges to make public and commercial data sets more accessible}

10 _{Red Roof Inn — an economy hotel chain with properties primarily in the midwestern, southern, and}

eastern United States — out-innovated its bigger-budget competitors with a discovery marketing program that leveraged flight cancellation data to drive stays at its hotels. Specifically, Red Roof Inn serves ads to stranded travelers, customized with the distance to the nearest Red Roof Inn and a phone number to book at that property based on a feed of flight cancellation data. Please read the vision report listed on the email marketing playbook home page (https://www.forrester.com/The+Email+Marketing+Playbook/-/E-PLA230).

11 _{Email marketing business as usual won’t help you benefit from customer context. You need to stop thinking}

of email as just a low-cost, click-and-buy tactic. Please read the continuous improvement report listed on the email marketing playbook home page (https://www.forrester.com/The+Email+Marketing+Playbook/-/E-PLA230).