Once a credit union has taken the steps it needs to get in place for an effective e-mail marketing effort (see story, left), Tony Rizzo said the next step is measurement.
With each of the target groups there are measurement criteria that can be identified, according to Rizzo. With SEGs, it's the end-member. With the community, it's press coverage. With dealer network, it's loans and deals. Internally, the measurement criteria is feedback. And with small business, it's owner-participation.
"When you're using e-mail there are just reams of things you can measure. I would measure open-rates, click-throughs, unsubscribe rates and bounces," he said. "The cool thing with bounces is it tells you someone is probably gone. And that tells you as a business development person that you need to get back out there and meet the new person."
Rizzo noted that at one credit union with which he worked that had 350 SEGs discovered that more than 40% of the contact names it was using were bad.
"Any activity you are measuring must be done campaign over campaign to be meaningful," he said. "It has to be consistent. If not, you can't measure."
