The email marketplace is a crowded one.  Volumes of emails being sent are rapidly increasing as it is continually being proven to be a responsive and cost effective means of customer communication and acquisition.  It has therefore never been more important to ensure that communication with consumers via this media is effectively managed so as to ensure solid response levels and perhaps more importantly, sender reputation with ISPs.

Of late it seems even affiliate networks are starting to get in on the act too, delivering email to support the activity running across their partner sites.  Networks offer an important way of delivering response on a CPC and CPA basis, but is it sensible to support this activity with email and is the necessary caution and understanding of the media being applied?

There is a danger that unregulated email communication from networks seeking to boost sales or fulfil response can serve to undermine a lot of the good work being done by Email Service Providers and media owners.   Where specialist ESPs are at pains to develop quality services and products taking into account all the fundamental hurdles and challenges this media presents, it is a concern that such insight is not always exploited or understood by those using email as an acquisition tool.

A number of issues are worthy of attention where email is used as part and parcel of network activity.  Central to these is the issue of control as an advertiser may have no knowledge that response is also being driven through email channels.  Given that the brand being promoted is considered the instigator of any campaign, it is ultimately the brand owner that must carry the can for any fall out should recipients feel they have received an unsolicited communication.  Would a brand  want to be put in the position of being held up as a spammer where they had no knowledge of running an email campaign?  Probably not.

It would be churlish to suggest that all email resource used by networks is unsuitable for third party purposes, but the ability to audit its provenance is seriously challenged if a brand does not know where it is being used.  That being the case another fundamental issue concerns data quality.  Any sensible advertiser using email for acquisition purposes should be 100% confident that the necessary permissions have been obtained and that the delivery of any campaign is in line with PECR and DMA best practice guidelines.  Under normal circumstances it is extremely easy to check, although with network sends it’s not always the case and communications can be received with no indication of where an email has been sourced from.  Normally you would expect this to be indicated in the from line and again within the email template.  There is no excuse for any media owner to conceal their identity especially if the source or brand from where the permission has been obtained to send commercial email can actually endorse the communication and reassure the recipient that their personal information is not being misused.

It is equally important to consider the extent to which a network might be able to translate the demands of using email to their affiliates or other media resource being used.  Where email-centric organisations are often able to educate their clients as to how best utilise email for either CRM or acquisition purposes, it is because of a solid understanding of the email marketing landscape.  Gone are the days of bulk untargeted sends to recipients who have offered only the flimsiest of permissions.  Such an approach these days is unsustainable in the face of increasing scrutiny from ISPs and recipients alike.  Quality media, robust delivery procedures, more sophisticated database management and relevant targeting are some of the most important factors to consider for email marketing to flourish.

There is no reason why networks cannot work successfully alongside ESPs in order to make email an even more effective channel of communication.  It goes without saying that many publishers will have extremely valuable databases if used sensibly, and in this respect the DMA and the network operators have an important role to play in developing a far more credible and integrated online environment.

Simon Jeffs
Head of Data
www.tmnmedia.com