One of the more unlikely celebrities to emerge from the recently completed football World Cup was Paul the Octopus. For those of you who are unaware of the background to this story, Paul lives in an aquarium in Germany, and has become an expert predictor of the results of the matches that feature Germany ( as well as correctly calling Spain as the winners of the final ). To assist Paul with the making of his predictions, aquarium staff would provide him with two clear boxes, with each having the flag of one of the competing teams affixed to its side, and a tasty titbit inside in the form of a mussel or an oyster. Whichever box Paul climbed into was treated as being his selection, and incredibly he ended the World Cup with a 100% success record.

I got to thinking that Paul’s predictions have a lot in common with email marketing. Think about it :

• There are differing outcomes associated with whichever box you ultimately end up in !
  When Paul correctly predicted that Germany would lose to Spain in the semi-finals, German fans called for him to be cooked and eaten, while the Spanish prime minister jokingly offered to provide him with protection.

  Similarly, “inbox placement” is now widely regarded as a more accurate campaign metric than “delivered rate”. Campaign responses are markedly higher when the emails are getting delivered to a location where they will be seen, and responded to. E-marketers need to be challenging their ESPs to provide them with the reporting capabilities to see whether this is an issue that is affecting their programs. And if so, to implement the best practices that improves their inbox placement performance.

• Recognition plays an important role in delivering a positive outcome !
  One theory about Paul’s astonishing success rate was that Octopuses, which are highly intelligent creatures, can differentiate between shapes ( apparently with a preference for rectangles ! ) as well as between contrasts in brightness. The German flag, which he chose 5 times, was therefore an obvious choice for him, except when presented with the even greater contrasts that were represented by the stripes of the Serbian and Spanish flags.

  Similarly, the typical inbox is a massively congested space right now, and consumers are more likely to respond to marketing emails when they immediately recognise the sender. E-marketers need to be careful to ensure that they maintain a consistent “friendly from” and that the subject line clearly explains why the email is worth opening. And with many recipients using some format of preview pane, making sure that this limited amount of real estate is able to effectively convey the sender’s brand and call to action.

• A good incentive is more likely to achieve the response that you are looking for! While Paul’s psychic capabilities are undeniably phenomenal, it is unlikely that he would have displayed them without the incentive of the mussel that was place in each box. Octopuses are equipped with sensitive chemo receptors on their tentacles and Paul, knowing that there was a tasty treat inside the boxes, was eager to engage.Similarly, consumers are more likely to respond when they consider that a fair exchange of value is taking place. This doesn’t necessarily need to be in the form of a prize or a free giveaway either. Good content carries a value ( think moneysavingexpert.com ) and consumers will respond more readily to marketing emails that they think that they will benefit from. Email marketers will be rewarded by the application of even simple profiling and segmentation against their marketing audience so that they can consistently apply the marketing mantra of “right target, right message, right time.”

So what else does Paul the Octopus have in common with email marketing ? Cynics may respond that it is a case of having a highly intelligent brain at the centre of operations, which is attempting to control the behaviour of thousands of suckers, and sometimes coming unstuck in the pursuit of a few more squid !

However, I would prefer to tip my hat to Ringo Starr, who wrote Octopus’s Garden for The Beatles, after eating octopus for dinner, and learning from the ship’s captain that they travel along the sea bed picking up stones and shiny objects with which to build gardens. So the octopus analogy is with something that creates value without necessarily having an ulterior motive, that can take many different forms, that populates a variety of different channels, and that ultimately is capable of leaving a good taste in your mouth – just like well run email marketing program !

About the Author

Guy Hanson is Director, Response Consulting at Return Path. View the full bio here.

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