Sean DuffySean Duffy is founder of Segmentum, an eCRM strategy & implementation agency, and Reignite, a real-time email personalisation platform.

Sean has been in the email marketing industry since 2003, initially spending 10 years at a start-up ESP, helping establish them as one of the UK's leading email marketing platforms. Since then he has also worked client-side before creating Segmentum in 2015.

Why reactivation campaigns need more than a token gesture

ram-kishor-clsgJJdSvY8-unsplash-600

If you work for a consumer facing brand in sectors such as retail, marketplaces or travel where there is a relatively high propensity to buy multiple times, the chances are you are sat on a goldmine of under explored opportunities in relation to reactivating lapsed customers. I could quote lots of...

Continue reading
  1483 Hits

Are your personalisation efforts CRISP?

mustafa-bashari-S4PC4SeKwKg-unsplash-600

Just this week I saw yet another of those consumer surveys about email marketing commissioned by a tech vendor. Inside there were lots of obvious things that come from leading questions (like ‘Would you like less or more marketing emails in 2024?’. Phrased like that how do you think they’d respond?...

Continue reading
  1386 Hits

How customers's unconscious decisions impact your email marketing

danil-shostak-AChwtt3tBPU-unsplash-600

As marketers we tend to overthink how our customers feel, and how they interact with the marketing emails we send them. We obsess about what goes into the messages and the schedule, order and cadence of messaging. We’ve designed the campaigns so customers will rationally follow our lovely call-to-action as their...

Continue reading
  1700 Hits

The Challenges of Attribution & Email Marketing

will-fqkrXYMosT4-unsplash-600

In my last article I talked about the problem of using averages in email marketing. But there is of course a more pressing measurement issue with email – attribution. Attribution is the process of identifying and giving credit to the various touchpoints or interactions that contribute to a desired outcome, such...

Continue reading
  2408 Hits

The perils of averages for email marketers

charlesdeluvio-Z5ViTNhtPRs-unsplash-600

Introduction As email marketers we think of ourselves as a data driven decision makers. We have stats coming at us from all angles such as open and click rates, transactional data like average order values and customer data such as time since last shopped. Yet the phrase “lies, damned lies, and...

Continue reading
  1537 Hits

How green is your email marketing?

jason-blackeye--s1w1SguZTI-unsplash-600

A while ago I saw a press release from an ESP claiming to be net zero. At the same time, I was actively taking an interest in all things green having taken on an electric car. This seems to be the net zero version of a gateway drug to becoming obsessed...

Continue reading
  1442 Hits

CRM vs. Email Marketing: How CRM techniques can help us think differently about email

DALLE-2023-02-28-11.32.32---MIRROR-IMAGE-INK-BLOT

In the B2C world what is the difference between CRM and email marketing? Nowadays the terms seem interchangeable. You only have to see many job ads that refer to CRM Manager who it seems sole responsibility is managing the email channel. Yet I would say there is a significant difference in...

Continue reading
  2205 Hits

4 things I’d like to change in the email marketing industry

pierre-bamin-eh_Q3gHA8gM-unsplash-600

For those who have had the pleasure (!?) of working with me over the years they’ll probably say I’m partial to a moan or a rant. I’d prefer to spin that as being a critical thinker but yes, there is a lot of truth in that! In all seriousness though no...

Continue reading
  1481 Hits

How to improve as an email marketer: 5 Lessons learned from 20 years in email marketing

08-Duffy-1

I’ve realised that as I write this, I’ve just hit 20 years in Email Marketing. Back in August 2002 I started my first job as Marketing Executive for a company that sold computers, printers, and peripherals to government and corporates. This is where, as a fresh-faced (and thinner) graduate I discovered...

Continue reading
  1651 Hits

What do we mean by personalisation in email marketing?

brett-jordan-onHNk5OcJlk-unsplash-600

According to Bluecore, 57% of brands number one email priority is email personalisation, which is unsurprising considering personalised emails can generate 6-times the transaction rates compared to ‘batch and blast’ (Source: Experian). With the demand for personalisation from email marketers being so high, it’s inevitable that every technological solution under the...

Continue reading
  1965 Hits

The 5 ways of increasing revenue from email marketing

20220224-155543zan-fYTfOzaRVWw-unsplash-600

What is the best way of increasing revenue from email? Pop onto LinkedIn and you’ll see endless claims and case studies of what works with very specific strategies and approaches. But sometimes it’s useful to simplify the ideas and think more broadly about the best approach. Assuming we only have the...

Continue reading
  4247 Hits

Do we ask too much of email?

mark-konig-2qMg2gXYKvo-unsplash-600-wide

As much as I’m clearly a fan of the email channel there have been a number of occasions recently where I see clients going to email to solve nearly all the commercial problems in their business. Whatever the problem is, the main action always taken is to send another email or...

Continue reading
  1950 Hits

Artificial intelligence solutions for Email Marketing: Do you understand what you are buying?

hitesh-choudhary-t1PaIbMTJIM-unsplash-600

Back in the 2000s everyone used to ask ESPs what their email delivery rate was. It was a meaningless number but one ESP would quote 98% delivery rates, the next would just claim 99%. Now you get the same questions around 'is your platform AI driven?' and ESPs have added AI...

Continue reading
  2400 Hits

Using ‘Strategic Email Personalisation’ to increase the standing of email marketing with the C-Suite

brooke-lark-nMffL1zjbw4-unsplash-300

As an email marketer for over 18 years across vendor, client and agency side I’m always struck by how much of our time is spent on tactical initiatives and having the feeling of being a factory producing the same campaigns week after week. It seems to me that most email marketers...

Continue reading
  4840 Hits