Consider the process of checking your email inbox first thing in the morning – you scroll right by email after email, neglecting the very messages that you’ve specifically requested from your favorite businesses.

But is it really neglect? To the marketer focused solely on open rates and clickthroughs, sure it is. No clicks, no love, right? Think again. There’s a lot to be said for those emails – some opened, many not, a few previewed and then passed by – that sit stoically in our inboxes, relatively untouched. After all, these messages are accomplishing the one fundamental task that every marketer requires from their communications: reminding the customer that they’re there.

And therein lies an unsung power of email: the potential to supercharge the rest of your marketing channels through a simple reminder that stares customers in the face.

Take me, for example. I am a loyal customer of Saks Fifth Avenue with a history of purchases both in-store and online. I am happy to be a Saks email subscriber, and I receive their emails frequently. Do I open them all the time? Not really. Shocking, I know, but there’s a reason for that!

First of all, their emails look great in the preview pane – I don’t even need to open the message to get the gist of it. Secondly, like many other retail shoppers, I prefer to visit my local Saks retail location in-person to check the merchandise out before I decide to buy something.

For customers like me, that email from Saks first and foremost functions as a “reminder vehicle,” not as a direct sales channel.

So, while my value to Saks definitely increases with the number of emails I get, my direct performance in the email channel would probably be characterized as relatively poor. Nevertheless, the biggest mistake Saks’ email marketing team could make is to stop sending me emails (which they’ve proven to be smart enough not to). By measuring email campaign data in the context of the entire marketing mix, multi-channel marketers like Saks often learn that many of those “neglected” emails are anything but.

It’s this level of understanding of the cross-channel effects of email that often separates the savvy multichannel marketer from those who have yet to make the leap. But let’s face it, it’s difficult for any marketer to get their head around exactly how to understand, much less measure, how the channel on the left might affect the one on the right and vice-versa.

This challenge is obviously nothing new to email marketers, yet remains as daunting as ever. To that end, I’ll be contributing my ideas to an upcoming DMA webinar exploring strategies around the effects of email (and other digital media) on one’s entire marketing strategy. I welcome you to join the conversation with me both on the webinar and here on the blog.

To tune in to Tamara’s webinar with the DMA Catalog & Multichannel Marketing Council, you can follow the link below. We look forward to seeing and interacting with you online!

“Integrating Digital Media Into Your Customer Marketing Strategies”
March 18, 2009 – 1pm-2pm EST

http://www.the-dma.org/councilevents/cctexpmar09/