Live from NCDM: The Pros and Cons of Going Postal to Get E-Mail Address Updates

Orlando, FL – When you lose e-mail contact with a customer who had previously opted in to receive messages from you, there’s a few ways to try and win them back. Here’s a few suggestions from Ron Blum, manager of e-mail, targeting and data delivery for loyalty marketer Upromise.

Speaking Tuesday at NCDM, Blum says Upromise targeted 300,000 members who they got three or more hard bounces from, and did an even split of postcard and letter mailings. Both mail pieces informed the loyalty program members that the e-mail Upromise had on file was bouncing back, and showed where on its home page the member could go to update the information.

The response rate appeared to be good – Blum says 10% of the letter recipients updated their e-mail addresses, as did 6.4% of the post card recipients. Why was the letter recipients’ response was higher? Blum says it’s because the call to action was clearer.

Revenue from members updating e-mail addresses was three times the revenue for non-responders – five times for the postcard recipients and 2.5 times for the letter recipients.

But there is a catch: Upromose’s ROI for the campaign was negative. “The problem is postal is not cheap,” Blum said. "At the end of the day, the increase in revenue wasn’t high enough.”