The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. of Marysville, Ohio, knows for a fact that there are people who enjoy watching grass grow. The company's even weeded out the ones who enjoy it so much that they want as much information as they can get about how to make it grow taller, thicker and greener.
But first, the lawn and garden care company follows best practices to add data into the e-newsletters it sends out. That way, the 355 variations the company creates each week on its primary monthly e-newsletter, the Lawn Care Update, are more likely to be personal and relevant to each recipient, says Stephanie Miller, vice president of global market development at New York-based Return Path, an e-mail performance management company. (She adds that a content management system aids in the personalization.)
Those in the field provide marketers with advice on how they can best integrate data into their e-mail programs. In addition to Miller, those weighing in include: Jordan Cohen, vice president of business development of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Pontiflex, a cost-per-lead marketplace; and Mark Smith, executive vice president of global sales for U.K.-based integrated marketing solutions provider Portrait Software.
1. Track the correlation between relevance and response, then adjust the e-mail strategy accordingly. "A deeper look into [response rate] actually analyzes what types of campaigns different customers actually respond to; whether the look or the content of the e-mail or the type of offer actually changes with the customer data that you've got on each of your customers," Smith says. "So it's a little bit like the relevance ... but it's the other way around. Relevance is all about you as the organization figuring out from the customer data what you think is relevant. Responsiveness is all about listening to the customers and actually monitoring what they do respond to and then using that next time around."
Miller points out that the way Scotts improved relevance was to ensure, at the front end, that the company had plenty of customer preference information to tailor the Lawn Care Update properly for each recipient. Whether registrants have yards filled with bluegrass, rye or fescue—or even a mix thereof—and whether they're in ZIP code 43201 or 11023, Scotts provides them with seasonal tips and timetables for nurturing their turf.
Miller says companies don't have to be as advanced as being able to tailor e-mails down to grass genus and species—they can set goals of tailoring at least one e-mail message a month per subscriber. She suggest ways to customize the message: "Open and click history, source of sign-up, customer status, date of sign-up or purchase history. ... Consider a different subject line for different segments, based on interest level. Shift content up or down in the same newsletter template to place the most relevant at the top. Replace generic promotions with specifics—a targeted white paper or a highlight of an untapped product feature. Track performance by segment against generic messages. You'll see higher response, and may also find that fewer messages a month will generate the same or higher response."
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