Spam (not the ham)

Spam I'm not talking about the food but something closer to home the dreaded spam email. Spam is one of the worst email experiences only bettered by emails from your boss with a deadline demand of now or better yet yesterday. Bill Gates famously said that spam will be solved in 2 years time unfortunately this was back in 2004. While spam emails seem to target me well (tongue in cheek ie get rich quick, help me get out from debt, earn $10k a week working from home or even Viagra) they are very annoying. We have all personally experienced the rise of information and the overload it creates. As can be seen below the amount of digital information created and shared has multiplied and is expected to double over the next two years.

Email better than search?
There are around 3.3 billion email accounts in the world (source  Mashable). Spam still exists as emails are still one of the best ways to get in front of a customer. Apparently for every dollar spent on email marketing in 2011 there was a $40.56 return whereas search engine marketing produced a sold $22.44 return. (source Direct Marketing Association).

Spam straight to junk
People are becoming more savvy and socially aware. Luckily it is getting easier and easier to opt out junk email lists. Spam filters try to target the worst offenders by looking for spammy keywords and phrases such as using ALL CAPS or too many exclamation points!!!

Here’s a sample of criteria from SpamAssassin

Talks about lots of money (.193 points)

Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points)
Looks like a mortgage pitch (.297 points)

Contain urgent matter (.288 points)

Money back guarantee (2.051 points) attracts the highest spam score!

Apparently other words are help, percent off and reminders. If the total “spam score” exceeds a certain threshold, then the email goes to junk. 

Hard to invest 
Even though email is important the world is becoming multi-channel with email, mobile, social, display, search you name it. It is widely expected that the Chief Marketing Officer will spend more on technology than than Chief Information Officer by 2017. In a digital world consumers have high expectations they expect companies to keep track of their purchasing history and communication preferences. Email plays a major part as they might not visit your website or blog everyday but check their email multiple times a day. The only real pure play email/marketing stock listed on the exchange that you can invest in is Marketo (MKTO). Unfortunately MKTO trades on a software as a service multiple which tends to mean it is not yet making money. Maybe I should re-open that money back guarantee email...

Jason

http://www.decisiveassetmanagement.com/

Disclosure: Decisive does not own a position in Marketo (MKTO) stock

The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.