The marketing vehicles, particularly the online communications, are such an inherent part of any organizations task of setting the stage for and promoting engagment (satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy)among their clients. And, as you pointed out, the inital email contacts are typically the first and, therefore, very critical communications and need to be handled with great forethought and care.

It appears that the email communication stragegy you are promoting has provided great success and is effectively overcoming possible negative preconceived perceptions among clients. You are demonstrating the opportunity to meet and exceed needs and expectations as well as reinforce positive experiences in the email arena. Thank you, again, for sharing your thoughts and your success in this area!

Regards,
Margaret Henry, Ph.D.
Senior Research Analyst

http://www.hcdigital.com/about/contact-us.html

This was an interesting article.

It made me think through the marketing vehicles in which the “Triad” are created and evolved over time. These would include the social networks (particularly the reviews-related networks), as well as traditional email marketing and website promotion processes established over the last 12 years.

I have found that there is another dimension to those mentioned above, that reinforce “expectations and perceptions of the customers.” It is the quality of online communications, primarily being email.

My clients have experienced an increase in perceived professionalism and credibility, over and above higher response rates to email campaigns and prospect responses.

These positive outcomes have reinforced the marketing environment/eco-system for automotive dealers that have helped overcome issues with sales process ethics and quality of client care.

In short, first impressions matter. And generally speaking, in today’s retail environment, email is the primary form of response. Without a quality email response, the customer engagement lifecycle you suggest in your article is less likely to begin in a cost effective manner.

Keep up the good work!

Best,
Jim Lawrence
CEO
DealerEFX.com

I would like to do email campaigns to potential students.

Regards

http://www.hcdigital.com/about/contact-us.html

Kind regards,
Elly van Hulst
World Record Holder 3.000 mts running ´89-´01

Point of registration is definitely critical for getting accurate information, but as we know, keeping the list free of harmful addresses can be difficult no matter what. I’d be interested in doing an article about the worth of list correction. Let me know if you’d be up for working with me on that.

Poor email hygiene practices are by far the number one cause of email deliverability problems. ISPs and their tens of thousands of servers have built-in thresholds meant to keep the spammers at bay. The three main factors ISPs look at are:
1) Existence of spamtraps and honeypot addresses
2) Excessive spam complaints
3) Excessive bounces

To maximize deliverability, marketers need to employ an email hygiene and correction service – http://biz.freshaddress.com/SafeToSendDeliverabilitySolution.aspx – at the point of registration (i.e. on your web site, through your call centers, at your POS systems in stores) to block problematic email addresses from ever getting into your marketing database while correcting the millions of inadvertent syntax/typo/misspelling/formatting errors people commonly make upon registration. In addition, marketers should clean and update their lists on a regular basis as thousands of new spamtraps, honeypots, and other toxic but deliverable email addresses are being created every day.

Finally, with regard to your bounces/inactives/nonresponders, these should be removed from your files BUT be sure not to discard them. Using these bouncing and inactive addresses as an input, an Email Change of Address (ECOA) service can help you reconnect with 15% or more of these former customers on your first run with double these results over the course of the first 12 months of service.

As is often the case, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!”