COA: Email Marketing...

I'm moving this week.

There's no boxes to pack. No truck to rent. No utilities to cancel. I'm not changing homes or offices. I'm changing my email address. I know what you're thinking: yawn.

It may not sound like a big deal to you, but I've had the same email address since 1996. That's longer than I've been in my home OR my office.

And to be honest, it's a little more stressful than I expected. If I was moving, I'd notify the post office of a COA and they would forward my mail to me for about six months. They'd even put my new address in the NCOA file so all the direct mail marketing could update my file.

But, in most cases, you don't have that luxury when you change your email address. And I get a lot more emails than physical mail these days. I'm not even sure who everyone is that has my email address. Up until now, I've used the same email for business and personal communications. Now, I have a chance to reform my process and create four new addresses. You might consider doing the same: one for family & friends, one for personal business, one for work and one for junk mail. It will help me sort through the average 316 emails I get in a day.

What’s the marketing lesson for you? According to database marketing service provider Epsilon, 14% of customers will change their email address in the next 12 months. That means if you market to consumers about 1/6 of your email database will go dead over the next year. And unlike with the post office, no one will tell you where they've moved.

But there is a B2B marketing concept here too. What if when I cancel my email service provider they offered to forward me emails for 6 months for a $25 fee. How much could they make? And would this positive approach generate good will? You may think it would cause more customers to jump ship. I don't think so. Look at phone number portability. I think it has meant more business for many providers. Especially the smaller or newer providers.

So consider how you can keep your database up-to-date. And while you're thinking of it, change my email address to phil@shaboom.com in your contact management application!


- Phil Sasso