One of the biggest names in email marketing is Mailchimp. The company grew rapidly from the 1990s to his 2010s thanks to its focus on designing for small and medium-sized businesses. The early days of digital may seem like a distant memory, but email is still the foundation of many marketing departments.
We spoke with Jim Rudall, head of EMEA at Intuit Mailchimp, to find out which emails he opens, which ones he unsubscribes from, and whether the hype around GenAI is justified.
EcoConsultant: As a consumer, which marketing emails do you open and why? Which brands?
Jim Rudal: As a consumer, I only open emails from brands that I subscribed to and were willing to share my details with.
I always check the subject line first to determine if it's an advertisement or information. Promotions vary by brand and time of day. For your favorite brands, open at your convenience and check out the offers. For informative emails, quickly assess the content and level of personalization, then decide whether to read them now or save them for later. What are the standout brands that catch my eye? Arsenal, Hugo Boss, England & Wales Cricket Board and various restaurants!
E: What is your personal struggle with email marketing?
JR: My personal problem with email marketing is receiving too many emails from the same brand in a short period of time.
Also, like most people, I hate it when emails lack relevance and personalization, especially when they're aimed at marketing products I've already purchased. Another is to receive promotions for items that are out of stock or not available in your desired size. This is an easy solution for retailers, but it's often overlooked. We also cannot tolerate clickbait tactics such as misleading subject lines.
E: What does personalization mean to you as a consumer and Mailchimp GM?
JR: Personalization is extremely important, and Mailchimp places a special emphasis on this. As consumers, it matters because the companies we choose to share our information with affect how they make the most of the data we provide them and add value to our daily lives. is. This is a real opportunity and responsibility. If I share personal information like my age, birthday, or spending preferences, I'll be disappointed if the other person doesn't put that data to good use to create a great, personalized message just for me. Probably.
As the GM of Mailchimp, it's important to help customers influence the acquisition or expansion of their customer base through the use of data at scale. At the heart of this is enabling us to build deep and meaningful relationships with our customers. This can be achieved through marketing communications delivered through automation and relevant customer journeys on a personal level. It's also important to use free tools alongside email, such as SMS, to ensure your multichannel marketing strategy reaches your customers exactly where you want them to go.
E: What do you think is overhyped about GenAI, and conversely, where do you think this technology is undervalued?
JR: I don't think the discussion about the potential impact of GenAI as a positive benefit to society is overstated. In fact, I think it's often underestimated. At Intuit, we believe AI is the most transformative technology shift to revolutionize every industry since the invention of electricity and the internet.
GenAI is democratizing powerful technology for small and medium-sized businesses that typically don't have access to such privileges. We hear from our customers how important this is to their business as they reach their goals and scale. Of course, the responsible and safe development and application of AI is essential to building trust, and we take these checks and balances very seriously.
E: There are so many things you can do with a CRM platform. Which brands and companies have the most sophisticated programs and strategies?
JR: I've been working in e-commerce and martech for over a decade, and for even longer the pursuit of true data-driven personalization at scale has been the holy grail for brands. I believe that with the right tools, brands will eventually be able to achieve the levels they have been aspiring to with AI. Until then, I think Sephora is doing a great job of leveraging personal beauty profiles and browsing/purchasing data to send quality customer communications and customize in-store promotions.
Of course, with the data they have and the machine learning work they've done, Spotify has been able to do a great job of recommending music tailored to listeners.
E: What has inspired you outside of work lately?
JR: I am extremely impressed and inspired by the work of Zoe (a MailChimp customer) and their mission to help individuals truly understand their body chemistry and gut health. I have received it. I recently passed the testing stage and was blown away by the insights in the report and the personalized nutritional advice I received.
The research Zoe is working on is also building a very powerful repository of insights into human health and nutrition, which, if it reaches a certain scale, has the potential to revolutionize the way the world thinks about nutrition. there is. I think this is really exciting and definitely something to keep an eye on.
