I recently wrote about the importance of Contact Cadence when developing and implementing a customer marketing campaign strategy.  The benefits of contact cadence ensure a database of customers will receive the right information at the right time without being exhausted by excessive and uncoordinated communications.

Complementary to cadence is Email Contact Governance.  This is the series of people and policies that determine who, how, what and when customers and prospects can be contacted using marketing automation systems.  (Please note: Governance is not intended to restrict sales contact!  Sales managers and reps may initially interpret this means they can’t make calls or appointments.  Not so!!)

Email Contact Governance is especially critical for companies that have multiple business units that run independent campaigns.  In the era of confederated business units and executives who desire to “cross-sell” and “up-sell” to other business unit customers, companies head into the dangerous territory of uncoordinated spamming and damaged customer relationships.  (In some countries and U.S. states this may even be illegal email contact which is another topic in itself.) An effective Email Contact Governance Policy and Team can actually help strengthen customer relationships and support contact cadence with a campaign strategy.

Who – The Team

• Corporate Executive Sponsor
• Corporate Governance Lead – the one throat to choke!
• Assigned Marketing Automation Pros (in the necessary business units)
• Business Unit Lead/Manager
• Sales Operations Lead
• Legal
• Channel Partner Leads
• THE CUSTOMER – provide a symbolic seat at the table to keep the focus on how to best communicate with the customer!!

When – The Coordination Plan

• Corporate Communications Calendar coordinated with Business Unit Marketing Automation Pros
• Campaign Calendar Coordination
• Authorized Communications – who can send information and how often
• Team Communication – The team lead should keep everyone on the same plan and regularly review changes

What – The Content

• Opt-In or Opt-Out Profiles:  Give your leads and customers the information they want.
• Don’t send emails to contacts who specifically opt-out of the options provided.
• Send consistently planned and remarkably executed email to those that Opt-In.

Worst-Case Scenario: Mojito Manufacturer, Inc. conducts a strategically important annual customer event.  The corporate communications team promotes each event up to a year in advance beginning at the current event.  Communication frequency via email increases as the date approaches.  Business units also run their own event communications independent of corporate often duplicating or triplicating the emails sent to customer contacts.  This is where the worlds collide!  Combine this activity with planned email campaigns and throw in 3rd party channel and chaos ensues!  Sales managers scream at marketing managers that customers are complaining of too many emails.  Believe it or not this is quite common!

Ideas to Consider:

• Corporate teams should provide content for business units to include in their planned communications and vice versa.
• Authorizations – limit who can send campaign or corporate email using authorizations in marketing automation systems.  (This should NOT limit direct 1:1 email from sales reps, support, etc.)
• Send the right corporate/campaign information to the right contacts at the right time based on profiles and opt-in information.
• Don’t rely on email alone for customer communications
• Use multiple channels, including social media
• Customer Perspective: Think about how you would want to be contacted!

What are your experiences, lessons learned and best practices?