Multichannel Forensics: E-Mail

The most interesting trends in my Multichannel Forensics work are in e-mail marketing.

Run your Migration Probability Tables, and pay close attention to what last year's e-mail buyers do in the next twelve months.

• If they are more likely to shop via e-mail than via catalog, your business is ready to reap cost savings rewards.  Test e-mail vs. catalog frequency, identify the optimal combination of contacts!
• If they are more likely to shop via catalog than via e-mail, you have a true catalog business ... it's going to be very hard to get away from catalog marketing in the future.
• Look at the geographic distribution of e-mail buyers ... are they more similar to the rural catalog buyer, or are they more similar to the suburban e-commerce shopper?  If they are closer to the suburban e-commerce shopper, start testing the optimal combination of contacts.