Commentary
Preference Centers Aren't Worthless -- Your Approach Can Be
- by Loren McDonald , Op-Ed Contributor, December 27, 2012
One hot topic at the recent Email Insider Summit in Park City, Utah, centered on the role and value of email preference centers. As with other email-marketing disputes, the debate that emerged from a panel discussion reflected general disagreement over the details and how marketers implement preference center, rather than …
2 comments about "Preference Centers Aren't Worthless -- Your Approach Can Be".
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Loren, thanks for the column. At the Email Insider Summit it was interesting that panel triggered so much discussion. It is no doubt still a hot-button topic. So much to say on the issue, but I just wanted to add some quick comments, and maybe try to lay some additional groundwork, and maybe refocus the discussion a bit. First of all, we may want to consider broadening the terminology we use to Self-Service centers. Every large company I know of, and practically every SMB as well, understands the value of having customers self-service their accounts online. The reasons for online self-service themselves are manifold, but clearly the cost of having a customer link to an online area to change a preference is far more efficient and cost-effective than having that same person call customer-service @ $1-5/minute. I could ramble on for quite a while about the benefits of online self-service, of which preferences would (should!) be a subset, before even getting to the question/value of capturing marketing preference data. I would also suggest that HOW preference data are consumed from an analytics and CRM perspective plays a key role in understanding the efficacy of the preference (self-service) center and the data. The data are the means to a marketing strategy, not the end. I think too many see it as the end, and hence some of the frustration or limitations, as may be the case.
Count me in with the profile center sceptics. You can get so much more information by integrating with your shopping cart. And you don't put a road block in the way of your customers buying stuff.