E-mail is still the Net's most critical application

E-mail traffic will grow to 500 million messages per day in 2001

Can and must be integrated into a website strategy

A " No-e-mail policy" = potentially fatal competitive disadvantage

Stakeholders initiate the dialogue !

They expect their e-mail questions to be answered accurately and promptly...
 
 

The Corporate "Swift-Es" - Fastest E-mail responders

• Sears, Roebuck & Company: 9 minutes, 44 seconds
• Bell Atlantic Corporation: 11 minutes, 22 seconds
• The Dow Chemical Company: 19 minutes, 51 seconds
• Chevron Corporation: 22 minutes, 22 seconds
• Johnson & Johnson: 35 minutes, 26 seconds
• Cardinal Health: 36 minutes, 1 second
• ConAgra: 52 minutes, 48 seconds
• TIAA-CREF: 53 minutes, 44 seconds
• Texaco Incorporated: 1 hour, 25 minutes, 6 seconds

The "Tard-Es" - Slowest E-mail responders

• Chase Bank: 3 days, 8 hours, 30 minutes
• Alcoa: 3 days, 9 hours, 3 minutes
• Sysco: 3 days, 19 hours, 31 minutes
• Morgan Stanley Dean Witter: 4 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes
• GTE Company: 5 days, 19 hours, 57 minutes
• Bellsouth: 11 days, 4 hours, 3 minutes
• Coca-Cola: 14 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes

The Corporate "Snub-Es" - No e-mail answers in a month...

• Citigroup (2nd yr. in a row)
• Motorola
• American Express
• MCI WorldCom
• IBM
• Intel
• AT&T
• Dell Computer
• Lucent Technologies
• Electronic Data Systems

• E-mail is personalized
• E-mail is a readily available medium
• E-Mail is fast and relatively cheap
• E-mail is the perfect medium for building relationships by maintaining a dialogue and keeping stakeholders involved
• Special reply addresses can send people to appropriate sources and offer ways to measure the effectiveness of traditional media
• E-mail allows organizations to stay in touch with their stakeholders
• Users of the Internet (and of the WWW in particular) expect to be able to communicate with an organization via e-mail

Strategies and Tools for inbound and outbound e-mail

Receiving and Gathering e-mail

• Companies that delay responses loose credibility

• An e-mail message and address must be seen as an asset

• Competition is a few clicks away...

• Team-approach to incoming mail is the best solution (organized by function or service)

• Incoming messages are archived and can become a knowledge base for prewritten responses

• Information can be shared with other members of a team

• Read carefully the requests

Sending and Writing e-mail

Team Clients (built on database technology)

• Provides a framework for planning and productivity
• Allows multiple people to answer the same inbox
• No need to rely on an individual
• Team clients give organizations more control
• Incoming mail is answered more efficiently
• May be used for Group e-mailings (limited)
• Insures consistent messages
• Enables evaluation of the e-mail system

Auto-Responders ( Categories/ Advantages & Disadvantages)

Replying without the need for human intervention
(acknowledgement of receipt/prewritten message)
 

• E-mail is acknowledged but not really answered
• Low-cost solution to e-mail overflow
• Provides a 24 hour service with basic information
• Great to connect with web resources for basic information  (products, services, FAQ's, etc.)
• Drives a user towards the Self-Surf pull Information model
• Can create standard and consistent replies

• No accurate response
• No great impact on the relationship
• Cannot measure the effectiveness of the response
• Potential for auto-responder wars
• Cannot be relied as the only e-mail strategy

Rules-based Auto-responders

• Recognizes keywords
• Integrated with database technology
• Manages large volumes of e-mail
• Can generate a "customized" reply
• Filters spam

• Inappropriate in the presence of grammatical mistakes
• No measure

Smart Auto-responders

• Usage of Artificial Intelligence and probability algorithms
• Answers large volumes of standard requests
• Reroutes e-mail to appropriate response-types or people
• Good for predictable types of e-mails
• Filters Spam
• Reduces human intervention because of greater accuracy

• A person is still needed to evaluate the complicated requests
• No measure of efficiency
• Auto-respond to first message only !

• Best use : with  database technology and lists
• Basic personalization
• Targeted messages (Reminders and follow-ups)
• E-mail lists not about to knock off direct mail
• Can be perceived as spam if not obtained by opt-in

• E-mail is the perfect medium for multi-step messages
• Don't overwhelm the recipient by writing everything at once !
• Spoon-feed your information
• Send the right information at the right time
• Good concept for Press Relations

Multi-Step e-mails create value (Support e-mails for e-commerce)

 

List Server

A management system which is used to create and control mailing lists.
An e-mail message is sent to a central mailbox - the list server - which redistributes the message to everyone on the list.
 

• The user initiates the relationship (Opt-in mecanism)
• There are about 75,000 e-mail discussion lists and newsletters
• Automated Tasks ( subscribe/unsubscribe)

Two types of list servers
 

1-Distribution list (one-way) information model
 

• The newsletter or announcement
• Invitation to opt-in
• The press release
• Challenge : effective writing
• Plain text or HTML-formatted e-mail ?

Press Release Operation Source : GroupAxion http://www.groupaxion.com/demo/
 
 

• Challenge : Find a certain balance in frequency of messages...

• Web sites must offer an e-mail newsletter option (Opt-in)

• Marketing by permission or Permission based e-mail

• Regular e-mails keep stakeholders informed

2-Discussion list (two-way) communication model
 

• Public or private
• Differs from Usenet Newsgroups
• Every subscriber can send a message to the entire list
• Goal : to foster conversation and to maintain focus
• What are people saying ?
• Great tool to monitor perceptions
• A list "owner" has responsabilities (rules, answering questions, moderating, etc.)
• Most lists are archived on specialized web sites...

In both cases, users subscribe by giving away their e-mail address
Expectation : valued information

Writing effective e-mails (general rules)

• Prepare numerous prewritten e-mail responses
• Clear and brief subject lines
• Beware of familiarity and tone
• Use short and multiple paragraphs
• Integrate and provide links towards specific sections of a web site
• Integrate anchors (inside links) if using HTML-formatted e-mail
• Use small graphics and multimedia elements, if appropriate
• Be careful with capital letters and italics
• No jargon ( acronyms or emoticons)
• Always offer an opt-out mecanism (especially for Lists)
• Beware of how Attachements are perceived (Download time & virus)

Integrating e-mail

• E-mail may not be an isolated application anymore
• Can be integrated with other processes : databases, web sites, e-commerce
• Special software is needed called e-mail application systems ($$$)
• Notification, Verification, Confirmation or Cancellation  of orders
• Support follow-ups
• Cross-sell information
• Bulk and Sequenced e-mails
• Not just a communication tool anymore...but an integrated business practice

The Branding Spiral Concept* (3-step process)

1- Traditional media is used to catch the attention and send people to a web site

2-The web site is used to "capture" an e-mail address (opt-in, newsletter, valued information)

3- The e-mail address is used to keep the interest, build a relationship and invite people to return to the web site
 

* Source :  Jesse Berst's Anchor Desk (ZdNet)
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_2745.html
 
 

 
  Presented  on the 4 June 2000

Additional Ressources