Is your web marketing timely?

Let's assume that you have developed a great marketing message and know your target audience. How do you ensure that the message gets to the target at the right time?

If your objective is to influence a purchase, then the right time will depend on numerous factors including the product and purchase cycle. 

Yesterday at 4pm, I received an email from English Heritage announcing a new TV series on The History Channel starting 8pm that night. The email grabbed my attention by using a large image (which showed in my preview pane) of comic Bill Bailey with Stonehenge in the background. 

Although the History Channel is not one of the 5 or 6 TV channels that would normally be on my short list, this would have been an 'appointment to view' programme for me as I like Bill Bailey and we did a family trip to Stonehenge a few weeks ago. I would like to find out more about about how it was built and how it aligns with the sun on the Summer solstice.

However, I was out yesterday & only saw the email this morning, so it was too late and I missed a programme I would have watched or recorded. English Heritage presumably took the view that it was best to email people 4 hours before the programme started i.e. close to the 'purchase ' decision time with the target audience probably still at work with access to email. 

I don't know English Heritage's target audience profile but I suspect it is older and may not all work. Although internet users, I suspect many would go online in the evening. 

One of the great things about email marketing is that English Heritage should be able to identify how the campaign worked e.g. how many people opened the email, read it, clicked on a link, interacted with the micro site, watched the programme etc. They may well already know this & I might just be an exception!

I think it would have been better if they had sent the email a few days earlier to get people like me to make a note to watch the programme with a reminder on the day of the programme. 

What do you think?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.