Slamming DMA 05 Attendees

David Daniels | October 19, 2005, 11:07 PM

In his closing keynote at the DMA annual, Seth Godin in a tongue and cheek manner, told the audience that “You’re spammers, each and every one of you.” He went onto rant about the irrelevant shotgun blast of marketing and advertising that consumes every marketing medium. Well, every one that is except e-mail.

While I agree the majority of e-mail marketers aren’t doing enough to make their mailings relevant, Seth seems to be missing out on the good e-mail campaigns that do exist. For example Quris client Charles Schwab employs very relevant practices, as does Responsys client Wells Fargo. Part of what Godin said is true, people buy things that make them feel better, but the real trick is getting the offer for that product in front of the right customer at the right time. It’s easy to surmise that people will buy bottled water over tap water, but the really hard part is figuring out how to make that offer relevant. Relevance is key. If you want to read more about success stories such as Schwab and Wells Fargo then see my report The ROI of E-mail Relevance which includes tactics to improve e-mail relevancy and a model that proves out the return on your relevancy investment.