2005's Top Email Trends Predict Significant Shifts for Marketers

2005's Top Email Trends Predict Significant Shifts for Marketers

ExactTarget Identifies 'Relevance' and 'From Address' as Keys to Success

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- ExactTarget, a developer of on-demand email marketing software solutions, announced its top email marketing trends for 2005, predicting some significant shifts in the way email marketing is conducted. The top trends are:

1. Relevance is King. The number one email trend in 2005 will be
relevance -- sending unique messages based on individual attributes at
an appropriate frequency. "In 2005 we will see the final and
well-deserved demise of batch-and-blast emailing, and to some extent
the move away from large-batch segmentation," says Chris Baggott,
chief marketing officer of ExactTarget. "Marketers are beginning to
appreciate the unique value of email in building person-to-person
relationships. While this has been a stated goal for years, execution
historically has followed the mass marketing approach."

2. Frequency Becomes Individually Driven. As emails become more
relevant, the question of how frequently to email subscribers goes
away. "People shouldn't be batch-blasted on a monthly or weekly
schedule; that is a relic of print marketing campaigns," says Baggott.
"Relationships are not 'campaigns,' they are communications between
people." Email enables customers' requests and actual behaviors to
dictate how often marketers reach out to them. There will be
occasions when it is appropriate to talk to subscribers three times a
month and then not again for three months.

3. Software User Interface is Critical. As marketers desire to do more
with their email, the ease of use of their tools becomes very
important. "If marketers have to reach out to technology resources
every time they want to change a content rule or test a concept, they
won't do it, and therefore will fail to market to their full
potential," says Baggott. "Batch & Blast has been the default because
marketers haven't had easy tools to do sophisticated email marketing."

4. Data Integration Fuels Relationship Marketing. Database Marketing
drives relevance, and data integration drives database marketing. In
2005, email marketers will move towards unfettered access to marketing
data with stronger and more invisible integration between their email
systems and their other marketing technology solutions, such as point
of sale and marketing resource management. We're already seeing this
with email integration to web analytics and CRM. "Accessing data
hasn't historically been a problem for marketers, it's been executing
on the data," says Baggott. "Email is uniquely positioned to take
data and execute to the level of relationship marketing that most
marketers have only dreamed of."

5. Automated Email. Well, not quite, but automated or event-driven email
will get a lot of attention in 2005. Marketers can utilize customer
data with automated email triggers to deliver relevant one-to-one
communications with subscribers. For example, if an item goes on sale
that is right for a subscriber, an email automatically is sent to that
particular subscriber. "There's no reason to waste a 'touch' on an
entire database when only a few subscribers are interested in
receiving a particular message," says Baggott. "Automating email
allows marketers to easily communicate with subscribers in a targeted
and intelligent way."

6. Marketing Democracy. Email will become the great marketing equalizer
in 2005. Gone are the days that good marketing requires big budgets.
The company that drives the better customer relationship will have the
advantage. "With the cost of data going down and email continuing to
be affordable, smaller businesses now have the tools to compete with
their larger counterparts when it comes to relationship marketing,"
says Baggott.

7. Rise of the "From" Address. The "From" Address will become the most
important factor in determining the initial success of an email
program in 2005. In terms of relevancy and growing relationships, the
"From" Address must reflect a person, not an institution. "The
fastest way to build a relationship between your prospects/customers
and your company is to engage with them one-on-one," says Baggott.
"Email is the perfect tool to do this. We definitely will see more
email coming from salespeople, customer service reps, store managers
or franchise owners in 2005 than ever before, even though much will be
automated with 'relationship owner' entered as another data field."

8. Better Control & Compliance. Email is probably the least controlled
medium in most organizations, but that will change in 2005 as
organizations are faced with three significant drivers that are
forcing consistent control and compliance.

-- Organizations are striving for one central view of the customer to
cut down on the number of emails sent to customers from various
departments throughout the organization through batching.

-- Companies are recognizing they are legally liable for content in
emails sent by their employees. Policies aren't enough; integrated
content management systems will become a critical component to any
system.

-- Compliance also affects deliverability. It is becoming mission
critical that systems are in place to monitor compliance with
lists, bounces, filters and everything else associated with
managing blacklists complying with the rules of various ISP white
lists. No organization can afford to appear on a blacklist that
might affect the entire enterprise because of the irresponsible
action of perhaps one person or department.

9. In-house email will convert to Email Service Provider. Most
organizations don't have the resources in house to manage the
constantly changing complexities of email marketing software. These
marketers will outsource their email to professional email service
providers that can deliver an on-demand, easy-to-use email solution
that allows you to communicate to customers individually with
relevant, trackable emails while staying compliant with current
regulations.


About ExactTarget


ExactTarget delivers on-demand email software solutions for permission- based email marketing. The Home Depot, General Mills, Scotts, Churchill Downs, Encyclopedia Britannica, and more than 2,900 organizations worldwide rely on ExactTarget email solutions to strengthen their customer relationships and to control email throughout the enterprise. JupiterResearch ranks ExactTarget highest in business suitability in 2004 based on the solution's usability, strong feature set and dynamic content tool. ExactTarget was ranked a Strong Performer in the 2004 Forrester Wave(TM) report based on the software's extreme ease of use and standout capabilities for managing brand consistency and legislative compliance. ExactTarget offers solutions that meet the needs of all industry verticals and all size organizations, including SMB, corporate divisions, not-for-profits, large retail/direct marketers, agencies and enterprises. Privately owned and headquartered in Indianapolis, the company has more than 30 U.S. sales offices. To learn more, go to http://www.exacttarget.com/ .


Source: ExactTarget

CONTACT: Mara Conklin, +1-847-816-9411, mconklin@teamclarus.com , or
Linda Muskin, +1-847-432-7300, lmuskin@teamclarus.com , both of Clarus
Communications for ExactTarget

Web site: http://www.exacttarget.com/


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