The value of an e-mail address
February 9th, 2007
Today there was an interesting bit on the E-mail Marketing Roundtable list about calculating the value of an e-mail address from a fellow named Jay Allen. Here’s what he had to say:
To start, we calculate the value of an email by the projected
contribution it gives us in a one-year timeframe:[(total $ contribution from emails in a year)/(total # of emails sent in
a year)] * (# of emails you expect to send in a year) = value of one
email address
It got me thinking about whether it is worth trying to determine the value of our e-mail addresses. We use e-mail to market to people, but also to support communication (be it getting people to participate in a survey or usability study) or to enable sales staff to converse with members in the manner best suited to their needs and lifestyle.
The factors at play with e-mail from my point-of-view are:
- the number of people who open the e-mail
- the number of people who act on the e-mail and the value of the business (one-time and lifetime) that this provided
- the value the communication (and frequency of communication) provides from a brand perspective
- the cost savings associated with using this delivery channel over others (think print vs. electronic costs)
- the number of people who open/read/act on an e-mail and end up face-to-face with a person
I’m not sure how I move this into a formula/index/measurement/KPI or if it’s a calculation that really has value. Anyone want to take a crack at it? Something I should consider adding?
One Response to “The value of an e-mail address”
1What’s The Value Of An Email Address? « Marketing ROI: Whims from Ron Shevlin
February 12th, 2007 @ 10:25 pm
[…] 11, 2007 Posted by rshevlin in email, marketing, analytics, marketing ROI, marketing measurement. trackback In response to a post about how to calculate the value of an email address, Benry comments thatthe value can’t be determined simply by looking at email marketing campaign results, because We use email to market to people, but also to support communication or to enable sales staff to converse with [customers] in the manner best suited to their needs.” […]
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