A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the criteria essential for an email marketer to possess. These were in addition to criteria any manager should possess (the ability to read your company’s balance sheet and income statement AND know what it means, have ability to think strategically, blah blah). A majority of those requirements were technical in nature- write code for an email, explain tracking, stuff like that. Two of the five points dealt with data: first, retrieving data (SQL and Access) and second, reading data (pivot tables).
Hint: Pivot tables are marketing GOLD, and no one knows how to use them.
Data is the Force of marketing- anyone who can retrieve the data AND understand the data and trends it provides becomes both valuable and important to their company. Why? Because there are a lot of people who can do one or the other, but the ability to execute both of these skills allows one to see the company’s big picture.
Email managers are in a unique position to be close to both the data and results, and the ability to retrieve and decipher both gives way to the opportunity to be at the forefront of knowing the data and deciphering results, allowing strategic thinking and insights before anyone else. This assumes the email manager doesn’t have to go through someone else to get it (which is what a majority of the email managers currently do- which explains to proliferation of consultants and outsourcing of email services when companies already employ an email or internet manager).
To better explain, look at this cow:
Bessie, the Marketing Cow
Dairy cows are gigantic animals whose value to humanity comes down to their teats. That 1200 pound, 4 stomach-having, methane/ozone-killing fart-producing, blank-staring stupid animal’s value comes down to its 4-6 little openings on its nipples because that is where the milk comes from. And as beverage, you can drink your soy, your wine, your expensive acai juice, but as a beverage, you don’t much cheaper per ounce with more benefit than milk.
There is a point to this. Stay with me, friends.
If the farmer can both feed and milk the cow without help, the milk is cheaper. If the milk is bad, they can find the problem and fix it. If the email manager can both retrieve data AND decipher the data, using other resources isn’t necessary and email becomes VERY cheap (or the ROI increases). Who reaps the benefit of cheaper products and increased ROI? The farmer and (hopefully) the email manager.
More and more frequently, especially in today’s economic environment, companies are relying on their in-house databases and email as their main outreach vehicle to prospects and customers. Yes, budget money is still being spread around to paid search, ad buys, list buys and all that jazz, but email is relied upon to keep reaching contacts and move them through marketing and sales cycles. It’s cheap, it’s effective, and it has trackable results. Henceforth, e-mail is the teat of marketing.
If the email manager can do neither, then they’re just the people person who uses buzzwords, gets boners over new products like ICQ, Friendster, Twitter, or Google Wave replacing email so they can catch up, and outsources everything. They are no cow teat. In fact, push them enough and they are Toms:
