Email remains one of the best-returning channels, and the figures that circulate are spectacular. They measure a ratio between a very low sending cost and a revenue. They do not measure whether what is sent is any good.
The method, which is no mystery
- Set a single objective per campaign, or nothing can be measured
- Segment the list on criteria that genuinely change the message
- Write clearly and briefly, with one action expected
- Schedule to the recipient’s rhythm, not the sender’s
- Read the results, unsubscribes included
Segmentation is a test of positioning
It is the second step that gives the game away. A business able to segment its list meaningfully is a business that knows who it addresses and why. One that cannot is not discovering a tooling problem: it is discovering that it never settled its audience.
If you do not know how to segment your list, the problem is not your list.
Three mistakes, and what they betray
- Blanket sending with no segmentation — the business does not distinguish its audiences
- The generic message — the offer itself is undifferentiated
- The absence of analysis — nobody is accountable for the result
Each is treated as sloppy execution. Each in fact signals a decision that was never taken upstream.
Choosing the tool, the last question
The platforms on the market are broadly equivalent for ordinary use. Time spent comparing them is almost always time taken from work on the message. It is a comfortable displacement: choosing a tool is an easy decision, defining an offer is not.